Health department investigating possible cancer cluster at old Florida high school - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Florida's Department of Health is looking into claims that a Gulf Coast school has made hundreds of people sick from diseases like cancer. Health officials are now asking alumni and faculty of the school in Bradenton affected by cancer to submit their health records. So far, the department says there is no conclusive evidence the school is the source of any disease clusters. Bayshore High School was torn down in 1999 in place of a bigger campus next door, but suspicions of health problems linking back to the old property have been around for decades. Now, the health department in Manatee County is asking people who have gotten sick to fill out a form and tell their stories, reports CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez. Over the last 13 years, Jozsa says she has tracked nearly 500 cases linking Bayshore alumni and employees to cancer, autoimmune diseases or children with birth defects.[/quote] [url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-department-investigating-possible-cancer-cluster-at-florida-high-school/]CBS[/url]

What could it be?

[QUOTE=Blackwheel;52990927]What could it be?[/QUOTE] I'm imagining asbestos related. older buildings are made with asbestos insulation, prolonged exposure to asbestos is a carcinogen

[QUOTE=Blackwheel;52990927]What could it be?[/QUOTE] Could be Radon gas from underground uranium deposits. That usually causes lung cancer, but should be easily detectable. It could also be contamination of the water supply with radioactive materials. That's pretty much the only two explanations I can think of that would cause problems in both the old and new campuses on the same plot of land. [editline]19th December 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=LZTYBRN;52990986]I'm imagining asbestos related. older buildings are made with asbestos insulation, prolonged exposure to asbestos is a carcinogen[/QUOTE] Asbestos doesn't cause autoimmune diseases or birth defects though. The way it causes cancer is that it lodges in the lungs and causes constant scarring, IE rapid cell division that eventually leads to a DNA defect that causes cancer.

[QUOTE=LZTYBRN;52990986]I'm imagining asbestos related. older buildings are made with asbestos insulation, prolonged exposure to asbestos is a carcinogen[/QUOTE] Asbestos was and still is everywhere. You really need to be working with the stuff or breathing in broken fibers from a construction/demolition site to be at risk from it. Don't get me wrong, asbestos is not good, and it should absolutely be eliminated (better safe than sorry), but you don't get asbestosis just from being in a building with asbestos insulation. The risk level of asbestos is somewhat exaggerated for safety reasons to make people pay attention.

No surprise here. All the old schools down here have significant problems. My old high school was a superfund site if I recall correctly; the walls were filled with mold and as someone who is allergic to mold I could hardly breathe easy inside the building. One time a kid had a fight in a classroom and somehow knocked a hole into the wall, causing everyone in the hallway to vacate as it smelled like a portal to some disgusting hellscape just opened up.

[QUOTE=zombini;52990990]Could be Radon gas from underground uranium deposits. That usually causes lung cancer, but should be easily detectable. It could also be contamination of the water supply with radioactive materials. That's pretty much the only two explanations I can think of that would cause problems in both the old and new campuses on the same plot of land. [/QUOTE] There are plenty of other things than radiation that can get into the water and cause cancers.

[QUOTE=zombini;52990990]Could be Radon gas from underground uranium deposits. That usually causes lung cancer, but should be easily detectable. It could also be contamination of the water supply with radioactive materials. That's pretty much the only two explanations I can think of that would cause problems in both the old and new campuses on the same plot of land. [editline]19th December 2017[/editline] Asbestos doesn't cause autoimmune diseases or birth defects though. The way it causes cancer is that it lodges in the lungs and causes constant scarring, IE rapid cell division that eventually leads to a DNA defect that causes cancer.[/QUOTE] I highly doubt theres a large enough uranium vain, that can cause cancer, under this Florida school that wouldn't have been found initial construction, demolition, then reconstruction. Florida grows a lot of oranges, Tropicana is, or was, headquartered Bradenton. Pesticide run off contaminating ground water, or running through the river that runs through the town, is far more likely.

[QUOTE=Grenadiac;52991000]Asbestos was and still is everywhere. You really need to be working with the stuff or breathing in broken fibers from a construction/demolition site to be at risk from it. Don't get me wrong, asbestos is not good, and it should absolutely be eliminated (better safe than sorry), but you don't get asbestosis just from being in a building with asbestos insulation. The risk level of asbestos is somewhat exaggerated for safety reasons to make people pay attention.[/QUOTE] yeah the best course of action when tasked with asbestos is generally to leave it alone. working with it does more damage than just ignoring it. I sincerely doubt asbestos was the problem if the issues are the same in the new building anyway. (didn't see mention of that in the article, but someone brought it up) also of note that it takes about 20-25 years for asbestos inhalation to become an issue. if the problems persist in the new building we wouldn't have heard about it yet (or at all, seeing as nobody has put asbestos in new construction in decades). plus not everyone exposed to asbestos ever exhibits symptoms, I've been exposed to plenty of the stuff from my childhood home and show no symptoms that aren't consistent with being a lifelong pack a day smoker. my money is on some kind of water quality issue. the article says they didn't find anything out of the ordinary but they can't test for everything, especially since I think they just tested the groundwater after the building demolition. the old place probably just had lead pipes that weren't in great condition. not sure about the autoimmune disorders but it would explain the cancers and birth defects

[QUOTE=Blackwheel;52990927]What could it be?[/QUOTE] School built on a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal]chemical waste dump[/url] that seeped into the water system perhaps

[QUOTE=LZTYBRN;52990986]I'm imagining asbestos related. older buildings are made with asbestos insulation, prolonged exposure to asbestos is a carcinogen[/QUOTE] Article talks about several cases of leukemia, not to mention the other diseases that others in this thread have already pointed out. Right now the CDC is still determining whether there [I]is[/I] a cluster in the first place, as so far its just been former alumni trying to compile cases on their own. [editline]20th December 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=RIPBILLYMAYS;52991566]School built on a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal]chemical waste dump[/url] that seeped into the water system perhaps[/QUOTE] I'm surprised the sulfur and acyl chlorides survived for so long, although I suppose they may have mostly been contained in drums.

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;52991013]No surprise here. All the old schools down here have significant problems. My old high school was a superfund site if I recall correctly; the walls were filled with mold and as someone who is allergic to mold I could hardly breathe easy inside the building. One time a kid had a fight in a classroom and somehow knocked a hole into the wall, causing everyone in the hallway to vacate as it smelled like a portal to some disgusting hellscape just opened up.[/QUOTE] Imagining a gate to the Upside-Down