Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
A JOINT COMMITTEE made up of members of the Senate and House has approved an additional $1.5 million in funding to study elevated rates of some childhood cancers in Dover Township, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg said yesterday.
The money would be included in the fiscal year 2000 budget of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is studying the elevated childhood cancer rates in partnership with the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
The funds are part of the appropriations bill for the Departments of Veterans' Affairs and Housing and Urban Development for fiscal year 2000, which began Oct. 1. Lautenberg said in a prepared statement that the bill next will be sent to the Senate and House for approval, and then will go to President Clinton for his signature.
The measure is expected to pass both houses of Congress next week, Lautenberg said. For fiscal year 1998, $2 million in federal funds were set aside for the study, and an additional $2 million was budgeted for fiscal year 1999.
The funds are being used for a variety of ongoing studies, including support to help complete an epidemiological study of families of children with cancer, and work on a model of Dover's water distribution system, which attempts to determine if families of children with cancer ingested more contaminated drinking water than families whose children did not develop the disease.
An interim report, documenting some preliminary results of the epidemiological study, is due Dec. 13. The study attempts to explain why the incidence of certain cancers in Dover is higher than elsewhere, and researchers are comparing personal histories and risk factors of 40 families of children with cancer with 159 "control group" families whose children did not develop the disease.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: October 9, 1999
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