This previous February at a Monticello Metropolis Council assembly, resident Caitlin McClain spoke about her father-in-law who died of mind most cancers in 2022.
“My father-in-law was a sensible, sturdy, witty man,” McClain stated. “He couldn’t speak in any respect. In reality, the one factor that he might say was ‘I really like you’ to his 4-year-old granddaughter, and she or he was the final individual to listen to his voice.”
McClain stated her father-in-law, a lifelong resident of Monticello, had glioblastoma, a mind most cancers that impacts as much as 5 in 100,000 individuals yearly and primarily happens in older males in response to the Nationwide Library of Medication. There isn’t any identified remedy and sufferers have a median of 14 months to stay post-diagnosis.
Since her father-in-law’s dying, McClain stated she has recognized 26 individuals in Monticello who’ve been recognized with glioblastoma since 2006. Of those individuals, 24 have died and two are present process remedy, she stated.
McClain, who works within the well being subject, collected the data by way of obituary searches and contacts from residents who’ve household or mates who’ve died of the most cancers.
She stated the entire individuals, aside from one, lived in southeast Monticello, south of Lone Beech Highway and east of North Market Avenue. All of the instances on her listing are in Piatt County, the place Monticello is situated.
McClain stated the info signifies there could also be a most cancers cluster in Monticello and questioned if tainted water with excessive nitrate charges may play a job within the instances as a result of nitrates have been linked to increased most cancers charges in farming communities.
After her look on the council assembly, town stated it had metropolis water examined within the space and it confirmed a a lot decrease charge of nitrates than common.
McClain stated she had contacted federal and state well being and environmental officers concerning the doable most cancers cluster. State officers didn’t reply to CU-CitizenAccess, however they did write a letter to a state senator, through which they stated their information didn’t present an unusually excessive charge of glioblastoma. Nonetheless, state information solely goes by way of 2020.
A most cancers cluster happens when there’s a bigger than anticipated variety of instances of a selected, and infrequently uncommon, sort of most cancers in an outlined geographic space in response to the American Most cancers Society. Nonetheless, well being specialists warning that the closeness of most cancers instances doesn’t essentially point out {that a} cluster has one trigger.
Glioblastoma usually solely happens in males of their 60s, per the Nationwide Library of Medication, however three of the instances McClain discovered had been males of their 40s when the most cancers was found, McClain stated.
The American Most cancers Society additionally reported that oftentimes in most cancers clusters, individuals youthful than the median age of analysis fall ailing.
Two of the individuals with glioblastoma are siblings, McClain stated. Although glioblastoma has a genetic foundation, the siblings had been examined and each didn’t have the gene linked to the most cancers.
The Nationwide Most cancers Institute publishes an incident charge for mind most cancers by county in Illinois. Nonetheless, the info is suppressed for Piatt County as a consequence of inadequate counts and to guard confidentiality. In rural areas, it may be tough for individuals to report most cancers diagnoses to authorities. See map under.
In an electronic mail assertion to CU-CitizenAccess, Monticello Metropolis Administrator Terry Summers stated town council reviewed analysis paperwork supplied by McClain after town council assembly on Feb. 26 this yr.
One doc was a analysis paper written by Mary H. Ward and revealed in 2008. It stated “the first route of human publicity to nitrogen fertilizers is thru ingestion of contaminated consuming water.”
Extra not too long ago, College of Nebraska Medical Middle researchers discovered a hyperlink between nitrates utilized by farmers in corn fields and mind most cancers.
Summers stated town council was involved about excessive ranges of nitrates or nitrites within the consuming water.
“Of the reported potential causes of this most cancers, consuming water is the one talked about doable trigger that’s immediately below our management, as we personal and function our water remedy plant and the water distribution system,” Summers stated within the assertion.
Town council employed Tempo Analytical Companies, LLC, an organization that gives lab testing companies throughout the U.S. and has three labs in Illinois, to check Monticello water samples on March 8.
On April 22, town council shared in a gathering that the nitrate degree in consuming water was 0.05 mg per liter, nicely under the utmost allowable restrict of 10 mg per liter.
The nitrite ranges had been virtually undetectable, displaying lower than 0.02 mg per liter for the utmost allowed 1 mg per liter.
However McClain stated she’s involved it might be one other contaminant town council hasn’t examined for.
“Additionally it is doable that there’s another chemical that I’ve not recognized that’s inflicting this, and I don’t have a laboratory that I can use, and I’m not a scientist, and I don’t work for the EPA,” McClain stated.
McClain stated she has been involved with federal and state companies. She stated she alerted the Illinois Division of Public Well being and the Illinois State Most cancers Registry about her findings and requested for an investigation to happen.
However she stated they denied her request. These departments didn’t reply to requests for data by CU-CitizenAccess.
“I’ve known as each division — they’ve handed me alongside from soil to land, to air to water to water conservation — they usually type of stated ‘that’s actually regarding, however my division doesn’t deal with that,’” McClain stated.
In an electronic mail despatched on Feb. 27 to McClain, Kyle Garner, a most cancers epidemiologist for the Illinois State Most cancers Registry, stated the Illinois Division of Public Well being wouldn’t be conducting a most cancers examine in Monticello.
“We don’t know why glioblastoma begins and have little or no, if any, data on threat elements for the illness,” Garner stated within the electronic mail. “We’re in a scenario the place, proper now, we don’t have sufficient details about what causes the illness, or what contributes to it rising … Interventions will need to have clear proof to information them. With out that proof/steering, interventions might very nicely be ineffective, a waste of sources, and worse but presumably do extra hurt than good.”
When McClain requested what number of instances of glioblastoma can be ample trigger to open an investigation, she stated she was not given a direct reply. Garner couldn’t be reached for remark.
When talking with Lori Koch, the director of the Illinois State Most cancers Registry, McClain stated Koch informed her clusters “simply occur.” After a number of makes an attempt to contact Koch, she couldn’t be reached for remark.
“I informed her that this appeared very uncommon,” McClain stated. “And [Koch] stated, ‘nicely, generally this stuff simply occur.’ And I stated, ‘Effectively, most cancers clusters don’t simply occur.’ And [Koch] stated, ‘nicely, in the event you had studied epidemiology, you’d know that generally this stuff simply occur.’”
McClain stated Koch additionally informed her that cancers don’t usually cluster. Nonetheless, the American Most cancers Society reported about 1,000 suspected most cancers clusters are reported to state well being departments yearly.
Moreover, the state public well being division has solely collected glioblastoma case information for Piatt County from 1995 to 2020. In an electronic mail assertion despatched by the division to Renee Martin, the chief of workers for Sen. Sally Turner, the division stated that information didn’t point out a most cancers cluster.
“Our evaluation of Piatt County glioblastoma case counts discovered 19 instances over 26 years and we didn’t see any statistically important elevation in the course of the 26-year interval, nor did we see clear proof of accelerating case counts,” the division stated within the electronic mail assertion.
Martin stated she has requested a gathering amongst Senator Rose, Senator Turner, the IDPH and McClain to debate the priority in additional depth.
Within the meantime, McClain stated she felt she had an ethical obligation to warn farmers in her neighborhood concerning the hazard nitrates pose to an individual’s well being, so she reached out to farmers she knew in Monticello.
“Most of them had no concept that this was a problem,” McClain stated. “A few of them had been very alarmed … I don’t suppose that it’s anybody’s fault, I wish to be very clear about that … I simply don’t need individuals to lose their household, the way in which I misplaced my father-in-law.”
McClain is constant to trace instances of glioblastoma in Monticello and has supplied a kind for individuals to report instances.
