Two environmental groups have identified 42 “disease cluster” communities in 13 states where an unusually large number of residents have suffered cancer, birth defects and other chronic illnesses.
The groups’ report lists clusters that have occurred since 1976, when Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act, or TSCA, to regulate the use of toxic chemicals in industrial, commercial and consumer products. “The faster we can identify such clusters, and the sooner we can figure out the causes, the better we can protect residents living in the affected communities,” a study co-author, Dr. Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Reuters.
The list compiled by NRDC and the National Disease Clusters Alliance includes such towns as Kettleman City, Calif., where 20 babies were born with birth defects over less than two years, and Wellington, Ohio, where residents appear to be three times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis than in the rest of the U.S.
“These examples are just the tip of the iceberg,” Solomon says in a blog post. “In the states we haven’t studied yet, we have already heard of dozens more disease clusters, so the problem is widespread.”
In only one of the clusters has a specific apparent cause been identified. Residents of Libby, a mining town in Montana, have been sickened with respiratory disease linked to exposure to tremolite asbestos, a known carcinogen.
But the report, intended to spur federal support for confirming and determining the cause of the clusters, says that because of major flaws in the TSCA, dangerous chemicals “are still widely used with few, if any restrictions. These include many of the chemicals which have been linked to some disease clusters including TCE [trichloroethylene], dioxins, asbestos.”
Solomon will testify Tuesday about disease clusters before a Senate committee conducting an oversight hearing on the issue. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, have introduced a bill that would allow the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to step into the investigation of disease clusters when states need more expertise or resources.
