'Statistically Significant' Cancer Rate In LI School District: Study

NORTHPORT, NY — People — regardless of age — have a "statistically significant" higher rate of cancer living in the boundaries of the Northport-East Northport School District, a 20-year study by the New York State Department of Health found.

The study looked at 23 different types of cancer and all types of cancer combined among people living in the entire Northport-East Northport School District between 1999 and 2018, taking total cases versus the cases that would be "expected" by the state.

The study found 4,593 cases of cancer among district residents compared with the 4,454 that would be expected.

"This 3% excess was statistically significant, meaning it was unlikely to occur by chance," the study wrote.

Pancreatic cancer, malignant melanoma of the skin, uterine (corpus) cancer, and prostate cancer made up the highest statistical abnormalities. There were significantly fewer than expected numbers of cases of stomach cancer and lung cancer in the Northport-East Northport area, the study found.

The numbers of cases of leukemia, other blood cancers (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas and multiple myeloma), and 13 other types of cancer were not significantly different from expected, according to the state study.

The state's health department was asked in 2019 to investigate whether there was an unusually high number of students in the class of 2016 at Northport High School who had leukemia and other cancers.

The state confirmed there were more cases of leukemia, a type of blood cancer, in the 2016 graduating year.

The department was also aware of concerns over environmental conditions at Northport Middle School — one of two middle schools in the district, along with East Northport Middle School. Cancer was investigated in the whole school district area as a result, and state discovered:

• "We did not find higher rates of leukemia in the Northport community as a whole.
• We did not identify anything that might account for the leukemias in the class of 2016 on an individual basis, such as a strong risk factor, and the class members did not all go to the same middle school.
• We found that for some other cancers, there were higher than expected numbers of cases, but for other cancers, there were fewer than expected cases."

The study found 138 cases of leukemia in the 20-year Northport-East Northport study compared to the 140 researchers expected.

Robert Banzer, superintendent of the Northport-East Northport School District, said the district "fully cooperated" with the state health department during the cancer study.

"We appreciate the hard work of the NYSDOH in this endeavor and look forward to continuing to provide our students and staff with a safe learning environment," Banzer wrote in a letter to the community.

Northport Middle School closed in January 2020 for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year because of an investigation into elevated levels of mercury found in a cesspool by the building. Elevated levels of benzene were also found in soil samples from two different septic systems, according to environmental firm PW Grosser Consulting (PWGC).

The firm eventually found the school was OK to occupy but issued several recommendations in a nearly-7,000-page report.

"PWGC has not identified an environmental concern that renders the school unsafe to occupy," the firm wrote. "While several items of concern were identified during the investigation, each is addressable and does not require the school to be closed to implement."

PWGC's recommendations were:

• Relocating the bus depot off-site
• Ensuring contaminated air does not exist in the plumbing and sanitary systems
• Preparing a Soil and Materials Management Plan for the track field
• Reviewing safety instructions for art supplies and disposing of them if need be
• Performing proper maintenance and repairs to maintain indoor air quality
• Increasing humidity in the building
• Clearing organic materials from roof drains and having them inspected
• Redirecting surface runoff away from the L-wing hallway
• Performing routine maintenance on the HVAC systems, including duct cleaning

Remediation at Northport Middle School began in March 2020. Contaminated sludge or liquid was slated to be pumped out from the septic tanks and leaching pools, Banzer said.

Brad Hutton, the deputy commissioner of the Office of Public Health at the New York Department of Health, wrote in February 2020 that mercury was detected in a cesspool that was connected to drains from old science rooms and also benzene in two septic tanks. Hutton said the levels were not high enough to present health effects and also not in locations that would result in exposure to students and teachers.

Mercury has not been detected deeper than 18 feet below ground, Banzer wrote in a March 2020 letter to the community.

"This means that it DID NOT MIGRATE TO THE GROUNDWATER, which is approximately 110 feet below ground," he wrote.

Parents made their voices heard in January 2020 after the mercury was found. At high levels, mercury can damage the brain, kidneys and developing fetuses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.

Tara Mackey, a former Northport resident, filed a lawsuit in September 2020 claiming the Northport Middle School building and grounds have been contaminated with "toxic and/or hazardous substances" for many years.

Mackey's daughter attended the middle school from 2015 through 2018. In 2017, there was a chemical spill in the warehouse beneath the K-Wing classrooms, according to the lawsuit.

Mackey's daughter was exposed and injured during her time at the middle school, the lawsuit says. The daughter, referred to as "A.I.M." in the suit, had migraines that "became much more frequent" while she attended the middle school, according to documents.

The district said it "conducted extensive environmental testing and remediation" in its response in September 2020.

Mackey and her family have since moved to North Carolina more than three years ago because of health concerns in the Northport-East Northport School District, ABC 7 reported. Three other families also moved from Northport.

Mackey told ABC 7 she was "disappointed" in the state's cancer study, as it did not include cancer numbers from the community in 2019 nor did it include a chart of cancer in people ages 15-24, despite it including a chart for ages 0-14.

The 2019 numbers were not available at the time of the study and would not have significantly changed the data, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health told ABC 7. The spokesperson told the outlet the levels of cancer in people ages 15-24 were so low that patient privacy could have been jeopardized by revealing them.