Frederick to be used as case study on cancer cluster investigation

A Johns Hopkins University master's student is using Frederick to show how communities respond to cancer clusters.

Beth Resnick, the principal investigator and an associate scientist in the university's Department of Health Policy and Management, said the goal is not to draw conclusions about whether a cancer cluster existed in Frederick, rather to share stories about how the investigation was done and how investigators communicated with the public.

The topic has been a source of controversy and speculation among some residents who say Fort Detrick's Area B caused various cancers, while both the county and state have said there was nothing unusual.

"Our real goal is to share their stories," Resnick said. "How a cancer cluster investigation affects a community."

The group plans to interview about 10 people from the community about their work on issues related to investigating such clusters, Resnick said.

Frederick County Health Officer Barbara Brookmyer said the Community Technical Advisory Board -- which was formed to help with the cancer cluster study -- helped provide a list of about 40 people who could offer a spectrum of perspectives.

"The situation here offers a really good opportunity to hear the community's perspective, the public perspective," Brookmyer said.

Jennifer Peppe Hahn said she has been invited to interview for the project. An unbiased view would help other communities dealing with possible cancer clusters, she said. Hahn has had breast cancer and at 13 was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease (now known as Hodgkin lymphoma).

"I would just say it's about time that somebody stepped up and said, 'where do we start?'" Peppe-Hahn said. "They're getting an aerial view of how this has been conducted."

The Army found groundwater contaminated with PCE and TCE -- chemicals often found in industrial materials such as dry-cleaning fluids and degreasers -- seeping under a landfill at Area B in 1992. Some area residents have blamed PCE and TCE, which are known carcinogens, for their cancers.

A study done by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found that possible exposures were unlikely to have had a detrimental effect. Another study by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Frederick County Health Department determined that there were no unusual patterns in cancer incidences around the site from 1992 until 2008.

The National Research Council, in a report issued this spring, concluded there was no way to tell if Area B's groundwater contamination harmed people but said the seepage should have been considered "an indeterminate public-health hazard." Additional studies would be unlikely to establish a link to the suspected cluster because historical data do not exist, the report said.

"They refused to take into consideration stuff that happened at Detrick that took place in the '60s or '70s," former Frederick Mayor Paul Gordon said Friday. "They went back 10 years and that's it."

Gordon said he has also been asked to participate in the project.

Lori Calvillo, a spokeswoman for Fort Detrick, said the post has not been asked to participate in the project.

Neither Randy White, a Florida pastor who founded the Kristen Renee Foundation in memory of his daughter who died of cancer after living in Frederick and who has helped lead the charge accusing the post of causing the illness, nor his representatives returned phone messages Friday. White did not respond to a request for comment over Twitter. A phone number for the foundation has been disconnected.

Resnick said the project has no funding. Brian Simpson is the master's student leading the study and the editor of Johns Hopkins Public Health, the magazine of the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health. He could not be reached Friday.

People working on the project are also seeking to interview those who work on such investigations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Resnick said.

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