Friday, August 27, 2010, 9:51 PM

Stephen Stirling/For The Star-Ledger

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — State and Hunterdon County officials are investigating a potential cancer cluster at a Clinton Township school after concerns were raised in the district about the number and types of cancer cases occurring among faculty members, according to the superintendent.

Clinton Township Schools Superintendent Kevin Carroll sent a letter to parents Thursday informing them that the Hunterdon County Department of Health, the state Department of Health’s Cancer Epidemiology Services office and a private firm have been contacted in regard to a number of cancer cases that have occurred in the faculty at the Patrick McGaheran School over the last 20 years.

“When you know people have cancer and you hear of people you know having it, that’s jarring enough. But when some of these [Clinton Township Education] Association members started bringing up a potential correlation I knew we had to act,” Carroll said today. “When a situation is out of your scope of expertise, you contact those experts and that’s exactly what we did.”

Carroll said the concerns were specific to the faculty and no students were involved. He has been assured by the state that there is no danger that would require the district to close the school and urged parents not to jump to conclusions until the investigation is complete.

“During our initial conference call it was acknowledged that cancer — as other diseases — does not occur evenly over time and place,” Carroll said in the letter. “In the vast majority of instances, perceived clusters of disease are due to random variation. It was also noted that there are many forms of cancer, each with their own causes and risk factors, only some of which are known to have an environmental tie-in.”

Numbers of faculty affected and the types of cancer involved were not immediately known. State officials are currently awaiting information collected from a recent faculty survey commissioned by the Clinton Township Education Association, and will proceed with analysis once they do.

Health Department spokeswoman Marilyn Riley said the state handles between 50 and 70 inquiries regarding potential cancer clusters each year.

“The first step — which is where we are in the Clinton school inquiry — is to collect more detailed information about the specific type of cancer each person was diagnosed with, when they were diagnosed, their age at diagnosis and other demographic information,” Riley said. “This information helps us determine whether there are any unusual patterns that need further analysis.”

Additionally, Carroll said the district has contracted RK Occupational and Environmental Analysis to perform analysis as well.

CTEA President Kathleen Collins could not be reached for further comment.

Clinton Township Mayor Kevin Cimei said he believes the school district is handling the situation properly, but was taken off-guard by the investigation.

“It was kind of been a surprise,” he said. “Anecdotally, having my kids go through the school system, from time to time you’d see someone here or there come down with cancer, but there’s never been anyone really that’s come out and tried to connect the dots.”

Neither the Hunterdon County Superintendent nor the state Department of Education had been made aware of the situation prior to Carroll’s letter.

The Hunterdon County Health Department did not return calls seeking comment.

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