Norwood Residents Request Neighborhood Cancer Studies Following PCB Discovery-August 1, 1983

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However, public health officials caution that much of the alarm may be unwarranted. According to Board of Health Chairman Patricia A. Talbot, the board received eight phone calls and several letters requesting neighborhood cancer checks, notably from the Arbemarle Road area where residents gathered a petition with fifty-five signatures citing ten cancer incidents resulting in seven deaths across a five-street area over the past decade.

Patricia A. Talbot and Elaine Krueger, chief of environmental toxicology at the state Department of Public Health (DPH), suggested that the widespread worry could stem from heightened public anxiety or what they termed cancer paranoia. They noted several factors contributing to these fears: residents in towns where toxic wastes are found often worry excessively even when wastes are far from their homes, people frequently misunderstand the varying degrees of hazard posed by different chemicals, and the general public often underestimates how prevalent cancer is nationwide. Elaine Krueger noted that a six-person DPH staff was already surveying cancer statistics across thirty Massachusetts towns, including Norwood, which received heightened scrutiny after PCBs were discovered in a field near a residential neighborhood off Dean Street. Last month, blood tests were administered to eighty-eight nearby residents to check for PCB contamination, with results expected in three weeks, while neighborhood-specific cancer statistics would be reviewed by the DPH in several months. Overall town statistics indicated that Norwood did not possess an abnormally high cancer rate.

Despite official caution, concerned residents maintained that their fears were justified. Walter J. Grady, a District 9 town meeting representative, strongly advised against dismissing resident concerns as mere paranoia, pointing out that residents along North Plain Street in his district had long believed their neighborhood experienced an unusually high incidence of cancer—eleven cases causing seven deaths over ten years among roughly fourteen homes. While Elaine Krueger confirmed the DPH conducts studies upon request, she emphasized that priority is given to situations where health officials believe a genuine, serious health threat exists.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger