Activists urge new reviews at Kodak Park
By Corydon Ireland
Democrat and Chronicle
Democrat and Chronicle
(March 20, 2002) — Within sight of sprawling Kodak Park, activists urged
state and federal health authorities Tuesday to step up health studies of the
area around the Northeast's largest chemical industrial complex.
"We feel there is a need for more studies" by independent nongovernment experts, said Mike Schade of Buffalo, western New York director of Citizens' Environmental Coalition, a statewide group based in Albany.
That includes precise cancer maps linked to industrial pollution around Kodak Park, he said.
Locally, health officials say another review of Kodak Park-area cancer rates will be made by the middle of the decade.
Every few years, the Monroe County Health Department reviews cancer data in small geographical areas such as Kodak Park, said director Andrew S. Doniger. "But it doesn't make sense to do it every year."
The small number of cancer cases in any one small area requires looking at three years or five years of data together, he said.
A joint study five years ago by Monroe County and the state Department of Health looked at cancer incidence around Kodak Park. It found nothing above average.
A previous state study found elevated rates of pancreatic cancer among some women living near Kodak Park. But the illness was never linked to an environmental contaminant, said Doniger.
Eastman Kodak Co. officials said pollution from Kodak Park has steadily decreased in the last 14 years -- a dip of 76 percent in overall pollution since 1988.
"The issue of human health is something of great concern to Kodak people," said company spokesman James E. Blamphin. "We raise our families here."
Doniger -- who reviews quarterly air-monitoring data from Kodak Park-area neighborhoods -- said rates of contamination have gone down dramatically. "It's unlikely that (in a new study) we'd see an upswing in cancer rates in the Kodak Park area," he said.
The coalition and 65 other groups, some from as far away as India, signed letters sent Tuesday to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the state Department of Health.
The groups asked the federal agency for more study of cancer rates around Kodak Park.
The agency investigates links between environmental pollution and disease. In 1998, it released a report recommending periodic intensive review of childhood brain cancers in Monroe County. The agency only reviews data collected by others; it does not do its own studies.
The groups asked the state Department of Health for refined maps of cancer incidence.
Since 1999, the state Department of Health has done ZIP code-level maps of prominent adult cancers: breast, lung, colorectal and prostate.
The activists want maps that capture Kodak-area rates of leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and cancers of the testicles and central nervous system.
"We feel there is a need for more studies" by independent nongovernment experts, said Mike Schade of Buffalo, western New York director of Citizens' Environmental Coalition, a statewide group based in Albany.
That includes precise cancer maps linked to industrial pollution around Kodak Park, he said.
Locally, health officials say another review of Kodak Park-area cancer rates will be made by the middle of the decade.
Every few years, the Monroe County Health Department reviews cancer data in small geographical areas such as Kodak Park, said director Andrew S. Doniger. "But it doesn't make sense to do it every year."
The small number of cancer cases in any one small area requires looking at three years or five years of data together, he said.
A joint study five years ago by Monroe County and the state Department of Health looked at cancer incidence around Kodak Park. It found nothing above average.
A previous state study found elevated rates of pancreatic cancer among some women living near Kodak Park. But the illness was never linked to an environmental contaminant, said Doniger.
Eastman Kodak Co. officials said pollution from Kodak Park has steadily decreased in the last 14 years -- a dip of 76 percent in overall pollution since 1988.
"The issue of human health is something of great concern to Kodak people," said company spokesman James E. Blamphin. "We raise our families here."
Doniger -- who reviews quarterly air-monitoring data from Kodak Park-area neighborhoods -- said rates of contamination have gone down dramatically. "It's unlikely that (in a new study) we'd see an upswing in cancer rates in the Kodak Park area," he said.
The coalition and 65 other groups, some from as far away as India, signed letters sent Tuesday to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the state Department of Health.
The groups asked the federal agency for more study of cancer rates around Kodak Park.
The agency investigates links between environmental pollution and disease. In 1998, it released a report recommending periodic intensive review of childhood brain cancers in Monroe County. The agency only reviews data collected by others; it does not do its own studies.
The groups asked the state Department of Health for refined maps of cancer incidence.
Since 1999, the state Department of Health has done ZIP code-level maps of prominent adult cancers: breast, lung, colorectal and prostate.
The activists want maps that capture Kodak-area rates of leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and cancers of the testicles and central nervous system.