Is something making people sick?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
The name of my state is MA
Could someone tell me how to go about finding out if something in a neighborhood is making people sick? My Dad and the person across the street from him both passed awaw from glioblastoma (if been told this is a rare form of brain cancer). In total 4 people have died from cancer in this neighborhood. I've moved in with my Mom since my Dad passed away and I was recently diagnosed with melanoma (which probably has nothing to do with anything I will make a full recovery). My concern is could there be something in the enviroment that is causing all these people to get sick?? I have two children and I would be devistated if anything were to happen to them so I would like to know how to find out if something is in fact making people sick..... Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Could someone tell me how to go about finding out if something in a neighborhood is making people sick?

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Lots and lots of research and likely a lot of money.

it could be a coincidence but one thing you can try to research out would be first are those two houses old enough that they had private well at one time ? ( My dads home built in 55 was a house out in the country where there was just a scattering of houses since that was considered to be something between growing suburbia and country they all had well water) Anyway where Im going with this is that in some places houses were put in on,or near by what had been old dump sites years ago and there was no good tracking systems and little regulation regarding dumping at one point in our history, so for example back in the 20s , 30s, 40s, 50s if industrial waste dumping occured near by, its possible that ground water was polluted years ago and if homes had private wells the pollution got into drinking water. ( the oldest of the old people around there may be able to tell you if there was a dump site near by, or even tell you about now closed but old factories that used to be around the area. Theres a chance you might not ever find out if there was something going on near the home or at a job these men had that could have contributed to their deaths. BTW curious , did those men all grow up not far from each other or work in the same area like a industrial area ? theres a possibility too there was something they were exposed to while on jobs if they worked near each other.

FarmerJ said:

BTW curious , did those men all grow up not far from each other or work in the same area like a industrial area ? theres a possibility too there was something they were exposed to while on jobs if they worked near each other.

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My parents bought the house in 1996 and the house was built in 1980. As far as I am aware these people have had no other contact with each other, other than living on the same street. All the people that have gotten cancer on this street have gotten it within the last 5 years or so**************.

You can start with your county department of health. They may check things such as water and air for contamination. If not, you can have the water tested. You might try researching to discover if the area was ever used for industrial purposes. Sometimes dumping grounds were never officially recognized as such. They were simply places companies dumped waste. Those are hard to determine but generally people that have lived in the area for a very long time tend to recall such things.

Trying to establish not only a relationship between the various people with cancer but proving a causal relationship with some environmental exposure is often very difficult. Radon is one example of a problem that has been around for a long time but took a very long time to show a causal relationship with cancer.

speaking of radon, has anybody checked radon levels in their homes.

justalayman said:

speaking of radon, has anybody checked radon levels in their homes.

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It's funny you should say this... I was just told to have this test done.... If they find radon, how do they get rid of it? Who is responsible for the repair/clean up??

When I purchased my home I had a radon inspection completed. They provide the range of 'ok' radon...somewhere on the internet...

But, if they levels are sufficiently high, you can have a filtration system installed, but I've heard it's pricey.

webster0501 said:

It's funny you should say this... I was just told to have this test done.... If they find radon, how do they get rid of it? Who is responsible for the repair/clean up??

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**A: contact a radon mitigation company.