Published in the Asbury Park Press
An Asbury Park Press editorial
It's long past time to put semantics aside when it comes to the health of Dover Township children. Whether state health officials want to classify the elevated rates of some childhood cancers as a "cluster" or not, they have confirmed that the rates are high. So much for catchwords. What should be state and federal governments, the township and the water company do about it?
The "cluster" issue was raised this week when James S. Blumenstock, a senior assistant state health commissioner, told the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster in Toms River that the state tried to avoid using the term because it doesn't have a standard definition. Dover municipal and business officials don't like it either, for it places a negative label on their town.
But trying to skirt problems with semantics upsets people like Linda Gillick, committee chairman and parent of a 20-year-old with cancer, because it confuses the issue. "The bottom line is there were problems enough for government agencies to come in and use millions of dollars to find out what the problem is and fix it," Gillick said.
One target is the water supply. A state health department report released Monday found United Water Toms River's water was typical of ground water in the area and meets state and federal drinking water standards. But it also noted the 1996 discovery of styrene-acrylonitrile trimer, a byproduct of plastics manufacturing linked to a nearby Superfund site. Nobody knows when it first entered the public water system. United Water shut down the affected well field at the time and later installed carbon filters on two of its wells there.
But is that enough? Too much is unknown about the substance, its flow and its history. Filters may be needed on all wells in the system. Maybe United Water should consider alternatives to its exclusive reliance on wells. A reservoir supply is one possibility.
Gillick believes the state and federal standards for water quality need review, if not upgrading. She may be right. At the least, they're fair game for the government agencies' examination of the problem.
It's time for action, not talk. Every day without answers is another day when residents of the Toms River area could be exposing their families to as yet undetected threats.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: November 20, 1999
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