NJ mom claims she's discovered why Colonia high school reported cluster of over 100 brain tumors
COLONIA, NEW JERSEY: In response to news stories linking the school to a potential brain tumor cluster, Edyta Komorek said that not enough environmental testing had been done. From her own independent testing, she discovered evidence of very dangerous substances at Colonia, New Jersey.
Komorek, the mother of two Colonia High children, who has been an environmental scientist since 2006, claimed to have collected dust, window caulk, and soil samples from Colonia that were tested for high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlordane, heptachlor, and heptachlor epoxide — all carcinogenic substances that can cause cancer and other illnesses. According to Komorek, the results of her research show that Colonia's air, soil and building components should all be subjected to additional inspections by state environmental inspectors. “I just felt like there were a lot of unanswered questions regarding the school,” Komorek told NJ Advance Media. “I didn’t feel that my kids were safe there until actual soil, groundwater and air samples were collected — and nobody wanted to do it.” To the Woodbridge Education Association president Brian Geoffroy, Colonia principal Kenneth Pace, and Woodbridge superintendent Joseph Massimino, Komorek presented her results.
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The district sent a letter to parents and guardians on October 17 acknowledging the importance of Komorek's findings. Massimino said in the memo the district has “contacted our environmental consultants, the Health Department of the Township of Woodbridge and Township Officials to review the information.” He also said the township “shared the information with the State Department of Environmental Protection and the State Department of Health.” More than 100 teachers and graduates of Colonia reported developing brain tumors earlier this year, attracting attention to the community and igniting state and local investigations. Al Lupiano, a Colonia graduate and environmental scientist, made the discovery. The district and the state declared the school to be safe for kids and employees in May after an environmental examination of all 28 acres around and around Colonia revealed no signs of radioactive pollutants.
Despite promises from Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, Komorek, Lupiano and several other parents condemned the study for not being thorough enough to assuage their concerns. The review did not include collecting soil or water samples. For months, advocates begged state and municipal officials to conduct further testing. When that failed to materialize, Komorek—who holds a combined degree in environmental science from Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology and is an expert in air, groundwater and soil contamination—made sure necessary actions were taken. She claimed that on August 30, she took a dust sample from the top of the stall in a women's restroom inside Colonia and sent it to a Mountainside laboratory in Mountainside for testing. The sample was taken with a lab-prepared hexane wipe and put in a screw-on-lidded, pre-cleaned laboratory-provided jar. At least 4.3 ug/wipe (or 100 cm2) of PCBs were found in the sample, which, according to a study put together by Komorek and received by NJ Advance Media, “indicating that PCBs may be present in indoor air."
A caulk sample from one of the school's northern outside walls was taken by Komorek three weeks later, and it was forwarded to a Fairfield lab with state certification. The findings showed PCB concentrations above the US standards at 50,500 mg/kg. The study cites a regulatory level set by the Environmental Protection Agency of 50 mg/kg. A similar PCB quantity of 575 mg/kg was found in soil near the school's northern wall, exceeding the New Jersey Soil Remediation Standard. The soil also tested positive for high concentrations of the herbicides chlordane, heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide, according to the report.
Komorek asked the district in her presentation of her findings to communicate her findings to the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. She also asked that the district conduct further environmental testing. “The action (should) be undertaken immediately, due to high exceedances of the State and Federal regulatory standards for PCBs and pesticides, as well as the fact that PCBs and chlordane inhalation may be occurring by students and staff,” Komorek stated in a letter to district officials.
The findings made Komorek so upset that she made the decision to remove her girls from Colonia this week and enroll them in another Woodbridge high school in accordance with the district's transfer policy. She also stated that her initial testing was "very limited," not even including sampling the air or penetrating far into the soil or groundwater and that additional poisons might be found at the school. “Other toxic elements and compounds could exist at the school’s property due to the presence of suspected fill material, potential illegal disposal of chemicals or contaminant migration from surrounding properties,” Komorek stated in her letter. “A comprehensive investigation of soil, indoor air, and groundwater shall be conducted to determine if children and staff are exposed to unhealthy levels of toxins other than already identified PCBs and pesticides.”
Although, Massimino has denied the claims in his letter to the parents in the school district by writing, “Nothing in the newly reported information has any bearing on the prior studies which determined last spring that no radiation was found inside or outside of Colonia High School. We will continue to keep you informed as we develop a plan of action based on the advice of our experts.”