Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- A public health assessment of the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. Superfund site will be discussed at tonight's meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, the committee's chairwoman said last week.
The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the second-floor meeting room at the Dover Township municipal building, 33 Washington St.
Chairwoman Linda L. Gillick said that while most of the discussion at the meeting will focus on the health assessment, there should also be an update from township officials on the status of the investigation into potential contamination at the old Dover landfill.
Gillick said there should also be an update from a committee that is studying "TICs," or tentatively identified compounds, that have been discovered during extensive testing of Dover's water supply.
The Ciba health assessment was initially scheduled for release in December, but the report was not finished. It was then scheduled for release last month, but the release date was again pushed back.
The report, prepared by the state Department of Health and Senior Services and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, is the final public health assessment to be released by the agencies, which are studying elevated levels of childhood cancer in the township.
Last year, the health department released public health assessments of the former Dover landfill, the Reich Farm Superfund site and the township's public water supply. The assessments are part of the public health response plan prepared in 1996 by federal and state officials in response to the elevated childhood cancer levels.
The health assessments do not try to determine the cause of disease, but they do try to determine if a site has posed a health threat in the past or still poses a threat to public health.
Published: February 28, 2000
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