Cancer Too Close To Home?

Environmental carcinogens may be lurking in the air, water and soil surrounding our residences, schools and workplaces. Here's what we can do to mitigate the risk.

If you don’t have enough to worry about, you can always give a thought to the possibility of cancer-causing materials in our midst.

First, a geography lesson. The Hackensack River rises in the Sweet Swamp near West Haverstraw in Rockland County, N.Y., flowing south through Lake Tappan and the Oradell Reservoir, then meandering past the Bergen County towns of Emerson, Haworth, River Edge, Hackensack, Teaneck, Bogota and Ridgefield Park and the tidal estuaries of the Meadowlands before draining into Newark Bay. It’s a source of drinking water for residents who live along its northern stretch, but the river’s southern section, traveling through what was once the industrial heart of the New York–New Jersey metropolitan area, is also a source of other things: mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals, the banned insecticide DDT, the industrial chemicals known as PCBs and the highly toxic chemical dioxin—all of them proven or potential carcinogens.

“There’s always been a suspected cancer cluster in Bergen County in the area around the Hackensack River,” says Lisa Carter-Bawa, Ph.D., director of the Cancer Prevention Precision Control Institute at Hackensack Meridian Health’s Center for Discovery & Innovation. She notes, however, that there’s never been a verified cancer cluster in the county, in spite of its history of industrial pollution.

Still, few would blame Bergenites for wondering if the land, air and/or water around their homes could be making them sick. New Jersey has the nation’s largest number of Superfund sites—polluted locations officially deemed in need of cleanup by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. There are 115, 12 of them in Bergen (in Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Edgewater, Fair Lawn, Garfield, Lodi, Maywood/Rochelle Park, Oakland, Saddle Brook, Wallington, Wood-Ridge and the lower Hackensack River). And taken together, seven of the county’s municipalities (Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Englewood, Hackensack, Lodi, Lyndhurst and Paramus) are home to more than 50 contaminated sites. Bergen also has the state’s most polluted air.

The statistics are alarming, but whether they should worry you personally likely depends on many other factors, including where in Bergen you live, how you interact with the environment, what your lifestyle choices are and even your genetic inheritance.

TOXIC OFFENDERS

Bergen’s air is high in both major types of air pollution: ozone smog and particle pollution. Ozone—a naturally occurring gas that provides protection from the sun’s damaging rays when it’s in the upper atmosphere—also occurs closer to ground level as the product of pollution sources such as fuel production and combustion. Particle pollution, which is also a byproduct of industrial combustion and other sources, is a combination of liquid droplets and solid particles; of the two types of air pollution, it’s the one more likely to be carcinogenic—it’s responsible for between 1 and 2 percent of lung cancers in the U.S.

Much of the tap water across the U.S., including Bergen’s, contains trace amounts of carcinogens such as arsenic, which can occur naturally in water, and chloroform, a byproduct of water purification using chlorine. And while most of these carcinogens are at or below levels the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe, those levels haven’t been updated in decades. Of particular concern, in Bergen and across the U.S., are PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), the so-called “forever chemicals” that don’t easily break down over time. “We know that exposure to forever chemicals like PFAS has been an issue for towns across North Jersey,” says Congressman Josh Gottheimer, who’s made clean water a legislative priority. “They’ve been linked to many adverse health effects, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and impaired childhood development.” PFAS in levels exceeding the New Jersey-designated safe limit have been found in water systems serving Bergen County towns, including Garfield, Ho-Ho-Kus, Mahwah, Oakland, Park Ridge, Ridgewood and Waldwick.

Where soil contamination exists, it’s generally caused by whatever industrial chemicals were once in use on the site, most notably PCBs— polychlorinated biphenyls, banned in 1976 and highly carcinogenic.

One of the most common carcinogens in Bergen is the naturally occurring gas known as radon, which is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. There are 12 towns in Bergen where the risk of exposure to radon is considered moderate (Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Franklin Lakes, Hasbrouck Heights, Hillsdale, Mahwah, Oakland, Ramsey, Ridgewood, River Edge and Wyckoff) and seven where that risk is low (Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, New Milford, Paramus, Teaneck, Oradell and Westwood); luckily, no Bergen municipalities are at high risk for radon exposure. Also, just because your town is at risk doesn’t mean that your individual property is.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

The existence of known or suspected carcinogens in or near our homes, schools and workplaces is always a concern, but that concern needs to be tempered with understanding. It’s important to consider the role of the environment in cancer. James Fedorko, the health officer of the Mid Bergen Regional Health Commission, doesn’t believe that Bergen residents should panic about carcinogens in their environment. “In my opinion,” he says, “the biggest health threats are obesity/diabetes, fentanyl”—the street drug responsible for the vast majority of Bergen’s 700 overdoses in 2022, 125 of them fatal—“and tick-borne diseases,” the latter particularly high in New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast.

Environmental carcinogens, notes Carter-Bawa, are responsible for only 10 to 20 percent of all cancers. “About 5 to 10 percent of cancers are caused by inherited gene mutations passed down from parents to children,” she says, “whereas lifestyle factors are responsible for about 40 to 50 percent of cancers.” Those factors include smoking, the number-one cause of lung cancer; obesity, which is linked to 13 types of cancer including breast, colorectal, pancreatic, ovarian and esophageal; and lack of physical activity, which has been associated with breast, colon, endometrial, esophageal, kidney, bladder and stomach cancers.

The absence of proven cancer clusters in Bergen County should be somewhat reassuring to residents worried about environmental carcinogens. Nevertheless, the stats can be confusing. Consider, for instance, that Bergen’s breast cancer rate is higher than the rates of the counties surrounding it (Hudson, Passaic and Essex). That could mean that one or more of those carcinogens in Bergen’s air, soil and/or water contributes to the elevated breast cancer risk. But a closer look suggests that the culprit is more likely age, since Bergen has a significantly larger percentage of residents over 65, who are more apt than younger folks to be diagnosed with breast cancer. “I think the biggest reason that a suspected cancer cluster turns out not to be a cluster in the end is related to underlying risk factors, like age and gender,” says Carter-Bawa.

This is not to underplay the risks. A 2021 study out of the University of Houston found that those living near a Superfund site could have their lifespan reduced by up to two years; children who live, play or go to school near such a site are at particular risk of developing cancers and other illnesses.

WHAT’S BEING DONE

It’s important to remember that Bergen’s pollutants, along with those in the rest of the country, have been significantly reduced by the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act of the 1970s. “They’ve had remarkable impacts here,” notes Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack Riverkeeper for the nonprofit environmental organization of the same name. He cites, among other factors, the Hackensack River itself. “It went from having only four or five species of wildlife in it to more than 70 species that are documented to be using the river during the course of the year, including striped bass up to 40 pounds,” he says. And Sheehan was one of those responsible for getting the river’s lower section designated a Superfund site in 2022, which means that it’s eligible for remediation. That’s true too of Bergen’s 11 other Superfund sites, though cleanups can often proceed at a glacial pace.

The federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill of 2021 allocated $1 billion for New Jersey’s water infrastructure, some of which will go toward various clean-water projects, in Bergen and other counties. In addition, Congressman Gottheimer’s Water Action Plan and other initiatives have helped build new water treatment facilities in Fair Lawn and Mahwah and improve water treatment facilities in Park Ridge and for Ridgewood Water, which serves Glen Rock, Midland Park, Ridgewood and Wyckoff.

Sixty-two percent of air pollutants in New Jersey derive from what the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) designates as “mobile sources”: vehicles, aircraft, trains, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc. The Murphy administration’s incentive program, whose goal is to encourage residents to switch to electric vehicles, along with a general shift to electric and hybrid vehicles, should help to mitigate the problem.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

The first step toward lowering your risk of cancer from the environment around you is to find out whether, in fact, you are at risk and if so, from what. To determine what’s in your tap water, you can go to the New Jersey DEP’s New Jersey Water Watch website and input some basic info, which will yield a detailed water report (www9.state. nj.us/DEP_WaterWatch_public/); you can also check the Tap Water Database created by the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) (ewg.org/tapwater/state.php?stab=NJ).

To determine if you’re living near a Superfund site, you can search the Environmental Protection Agency’s database atepa.gov/superfund/ search-superfund-sites-where-you-live. To help you find out if your home is exposed to radon, the Bergen County Division of Health offers free radon tests to all residents. And to determine the daily air quality in Bergen, you can find the current air quality index (AQI) airnow.gov/state/?name=new-jersey.

If you appear to be at risk, there are, in many cases, actions you can take to protect yourself. The EWG’s website, for instance, offers advice on the most effective water filtration systems. While the lower Hackensack River isn’t a source of drinking water, residents can put themselves at risk by eating animals that are caught in the river, such as fish and crabs. “The contaminants are in the mud,” says Sheehan, “and they move up the food chain from the little critters that live there to the fish that feed on them.” If you fish in the river, you should release anything you catch.

Regarding the county’s air, the same site that reports the daily AQI offers advice on steps you can take depending on the current day’s air quality. If your indoor air is polluted by radon, there are a number of fixes to significantly reduce your exposure, but it’s essential that they be done by a qualified professional.

If you live near a Superfund site, you can get detailed information about the nature of the pollutants involved, the status of cleanups and the party or parties responsible for the pollution and cleanup at www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live. The EPA also offers a downloadable brochure offering information on Superfund sites and what to do if you discover that you live in proximity to one (semspub.epa. gov/work/HQ/175197.pdf).

COULD IT BE A CANCER CLUSTER?

Just because no demonstrated cancer clusters have been found thus far in Bergen doesn’t mean they won’t be found in the future. There have been two proven clusters in New Jersey, one in the 1920s that linked an unusual number of osteosarcomas (bone cancers) to the presence of radium, and another, from 1979 to 1996, that linked brain and other cancers in children to several carcinogens present in Toms River.

If you suspect a cancer cluster, Carter-Bawa advises contacting New Jersey’s Department of Health with as much supporting data as you can determine. “It’s important that, when there is a suspected cancer cluster, we take it seriously and look at the number of cases, the type of cancer, the age and gender of the people affected and the time period over which it appears to have occurred,” she says. In any case, she adds, it should be given the serious consideration it deserves: “We shouldn’t just brush it away without fully investigating it.”