FEDS DISAVOW SUPERFUND-CANCER LINK FINDINGS

Yesterday I reported that the abstract of the tri-county polycythemia vera study that will be presented Monday at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting asserted a connection between a local cluster of the rare blood malignancy and the McAdoo Associates Superfund site. Well, today the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is saying those findings are wrong. From an Associated Press story by Mike Stobbe and Michael Rubinkam, filed this afternoon:

Officials abruptly backpedaled Friday on a federally funded health study that suggests an environmental link to a cluster of rare blood cancer cases in northeastern Pennsylvania, saying an abstract that made the claim was mistakenly released to the public. ...

... Steve Dearwent, a government epidemiologist, said Friday that the abstract was written early in the summer and that subsequent analysis of the data did not support the conclusion of an environmental link — although he added that still is a possibility. He said the abstract should have been revised before it was submitted.

"We're going to have to retract the abstract to correct the record because it is erroneous information," said Dearwent, chief of health investigations for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the federal agency that oversaw the study. "It was preliminary and hadn't been vetted, and unfortunately it got submitted unbeknownst to most people here."

Dearwent said additional research might prove an environmental link. And the study's lead researcher, Dr. Ronald Hoffman of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said Friday that the data does in fact point to something in the environment.

"Based upon the data, there's significant concern that there is something in the environment leading to the development of polycythemia vera in that area. The nature of what's causing it is unknown at the moment and is going to require further study," he said.