Community meeting to focus on childhood cancer cases in region

A public health advocacy group will hold a community meeting on Tuesday for discussion of childhood cancers in Southwestern Pennsylvania, including Washington County.
The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, a nonprofit based in Peters Township, will host the discussion from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bella Serra, 414 Morganza Road, Cecil Township.
“EHP is hosting this community meeting because we know that parents and kids are worried about the heightened threat of cancer in our region,” said EHP Director Raina Rippel. “We want to bring those concerns to light, instead of hiding them in private meetings and incomplete studies.”
The meeting comes less than two months after the state Department of Health published a review of the rates of childhood cancer and the rare Ewing’s sarcoma in Washington County and the Canon-McMillan School District. The authors of the study found the rates were “not consistently and statistically significantly higher than expected” during the time periods the agency selected.
EHP has publicly raised questions about the agency’s findings and pushed for additional information. The discussion Tuesday will include “the issue of childhood cancer in the region, how being exposed to environmental pollution may play a part, and where we might go from here,” the group said.
Attendees will be able to ask questions, and light refreshments will be offered.
The moderator will be Dr. Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
The other panelists will be:
- Cecil resident Janice Blanock, whose son, Luke, died of Ewing’s months after he graduated from Canon-McMillan High School in 2016
- Dr. Ned Ketyer, a pediatrician, board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and EHP medical consultant
- Sarah Rankin, EHP public health nurse and oncology certified nurse
- Shaina Stacy, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and environmental health researcher