NYS Health Department to launch new study of Bethpage cancer rates

The New York State Department of Health will conduct a new and expanded health study in Bethpage, more than a decade after an analysis found cancer rates surrounding Grumman’s toxic dumping ground did not surpass expected levels.

The agency announced Monday it will carry out a retrospective observational evaluation that pores over updated data from the New York State Cancer Registry over the next six months. Answering calls from elected officials, the new study will expand the geographic area targeted in a 2013 review and report on trends in cancer rates over time.

A retrospective observational evaluation is a study of data reported to the state cancer registry based on existing records. 

“While there is no new threat to public health, and prior exposures have been addressed for more than a decade due to the efforts of New York State, we understand the public would benefit from and appreciate an updated review of cancer cases in the area,” state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement.

The DOH is still determining what the borders of the new review will be, based on the shape and spread of the plume in the past decade, a DOH spokesperson told Newsday on Monday. It will include the registry’s data through 2021.

Grumman manufactured aircraft and spacecraft on a 600-acre property in Bethpage from the 1940s to the 1990s and dumped hazardous waste that polluted soil and drinking water. Grumman and U.S. Navy operations in the area contributed to a vast groundwater plume that continues to move south on Long Island.

Ahead of the new study’s onset, the health department cautioned that firm connections between cancer cases and individual causes will not be drawn from the analysis.

The new study, like the 2013 report, “cannot provide a direct causal link between identified cases of cancer and any particular environmental exposure such as the Grumman plume,” the health department said in a release, adding, “Epidemiological evaluations of ambient environmental exposures can help draw associations, but they cannot definitively determine causality." 

Factors triggering cancer growth

There are many factors involved in triggering cancerous cells to grow, including genetics as well as environmental factors, experts say.

It's very rare for an apparent cancer cluster to be definitively linked to a specific environmental cause, according to the National Cancer Institute. One review of 576 investigations of possible cancer clusters nationwide conducted over 20 years confirmed that just 72 were actual clusters, with higher-than-expected rates of cancer. Only three of the 72 could be linked to a possible exposure, and a specific cause was identified in just one cluster.

A review of cancer rates in one particular area is meant to determine if the rates of particular cancers are higher or about the same as would be expected compared with other areas. This new review of cancers in Bethpage, then, is a statistical analysis intended to offer the public “knowledge and awareness of the types and rates of cancer diagnosed in the area relative to statistics for other portions of New York State,” the DOH said in a statement Monday.

Study follows chemical drums discovery

The new study comes after 22 concrete-encased chemical drums containing carcinogenic metals and volatile organic compounds were found buried this spring in the ground at Bethpage Community Park, which served as a series of settling ponds and sludge drying beds for Grumman's industrial operations. For years, Grumman discharged TCE wastewater and solvent-soaked rags directly into the ground there.

The newly unearthed drums did not leak into the soil, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation officials. A search for additional drums is underway.

In the wake of the drums' discovery, Newsday contacted a range of lawmakers and residents about the lack of recent Bethpage health studies. Initially, state health officials said they had no plans to conduct a new examination of the issue. Following the story reporting that, however, lawmakers intensified their calls by sending the state Health Department a letter, dated Aug. 8, requesting a new, comprehensive study. 

“This is good news and a step in the right direction,” Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement, referring to the planned study. “I’m glad we pushed them to recognize that this needs to be done.”

Assemb. Jake Blumencranz (R-Oyster Bay) said the expanded study “will finally address gaps left by the previous 2013 report, offering a comprehensive look at the health impacts and effectiveness of remediation efforts,” adding that the Bethpage community has “endured” the “outdated, incomplete” study from over a decade ago “for too long.”

Resident: 2013 study 'restrictive'

The health department’s 2013 report found cancer rates were not higher than expected in a 19-block area near Bethpage Community Park. While the study did acknowledge that those diagnosed with cancer in a one-block section of the analysis were unusually young, the area was too small to “provide a clear indication of an unusual pattern of cancers.”

The earlier study also found that the young cancer patients in this area had been diagnosed with different types of cancer and that most of these cancers have not been linked to trichloroethylene, the main toxin at the Grumman site and in the plume.

Jack Delaney, 67, a resident of Bethpage for over 40 years, called the old study “restrictive” and welcomed the new one, “as long as it doesn’t hold up the slow wheels of progress” of remediation at the park.

“It might put people’s minds at ease that the state Department of Health is following up on what has been a disastrous issue,” Delaney said.