Trenton to help parents find answers to thyroid cancer issue

Mothers suspect environmental link to disease.

By Meghan Crosby

Staff Writer

TRENTON — The parents of three Edgewood High School teens living with a rare thyroid cancer are looking to the environment for answers.

Mothers Stephanie Carper, Melissa Snethen and Debbie Tucker last week asked Trenton city leaders to get involved in helping them determine whether environmental factors could be behind their children’s cancer.

“We have a problem with thyroid cancer going around in our town,” Trenton resident Vicki Casey told Trenton City Council last week. “We would like some help testing the water here.”

Two years ago, Bryce Tucker, 14, Lauren Thorman, 15, and Amber McIntosh, 18, were diagnosed with thyroid cancer within months of each other.

Bryce and Amber have lived in the Trenton area most of their lives. Lauren lived in Colerain Twp. for five years before her family moved to Trenton three years ago. Today, they live within a mile of each another.

Carper, Lauren’s mother, said the group is not trying to scare residents, but is looking for answers.

“It’s sort of been my suspicion all along it’s environmentally linked,” she said. “Two other kids in my neighborhood have tumors and are being tested for thyroid cancer. So something’s going on.”

The teens’ cancer type is not common — only 350 adolescents are diagnosed each year in the nation, according to the American Cancer Society, and diagnosis is rare before age 16.

Carper, Snethen and Tucker have requested water and soil quality reports from the city, and are consulting with doctors and environmental experts as they search for answers.

The most established risk factor for thyroid cancer is radiation exposure, but toxins found in drinking water also have been linked to the cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

One such chemical is perchlorate — an inorganic salt often found in solid rocket fuel, missiles and explosives.

The Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Company has two lines that run through about 100 acres on the south side of Trenton. One is a natural gas line. The other is used to transfer various chemicals, including crude oil and propane. That pipeline also carries jet fuel to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Covington, Ky., said Trenton City Manager Patrick Titterington.

“We’re going to help them get to the bottom of this if there is a bottom to get to,” Titterington said. “It could just be a very strange coincidence.”

The main health effect of perchlorate exposure is on the thyroid gland, according to the Butler County Health Department.

Titterington said there were trace amounts of perchlorate found in a 2004 water test in Trenton. But the chemical was detected in such small amounts that it could be a false positive, he said.

Titterington said the city will retest for perchlorate and has contacted the Miami Conservancy District, which has helped with the city’s water quality testing.

Meanwhile, the mothers are trying to coordinate their schedules to consult with city and to review water records.

“The city has been very accommodating,” Carper said. “We’re just trying to save lives.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2813 or mcrosby@coxohio.com.