Toxic New Jersey
Gianni Perez
It is no secret that New Jersey is home to some of the worst toxic waste areas in America. New Jersey has numerous manufacturing sites, such as chemical plants, textile mills, and metal factories. New Jersey helps to power America’s industry, and provides many supplies to the citizens of the country. In turn, what does New Jersey provide to its citizens? Cancer and brain tumors, apparently.
In one New Jersey town, over 100 residents were diagnosed with rare brain tumors. The man who brought this to light, Al Lupiano, is an environmental scientist. He, his wife, and his sister were all diagnosed with rare brain tumors. Lupiano began to question how such an unfortunate coincidence could occur. The only proven medical cause of rare brain tumors of this sort is radiation. Considering that Lupiano and his family members lived in the same area, he began to wonder if there was radiation in his hometown that no one was aware of. To try to get some answers, he wrote a Facebook post and an article asking the people in his area to report any brain cancer diagnoses. Slowly, he got more and more responses. Shockingly, nearly 115 people in his area had been diagnosed with rare brain tumors. Even more unsettling—they all went to his high school.
This is not the first time something like this has happened in New Jersey. Starting in the 1980s, a chemical company called DuPont was hazardously discarding toxic waste. Because of the company’s negligence, the toxic waste lived underneath homes in Pompton Lakes—a town in northern New Jersey. The toxic waste polluted the air, soil, and water of the town. The chemicals the company was dumping were cancer-causing. According to NorthJersey.com, the community had multiple cases of “kidney tumors, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, stomach cancer, thyroid cancer, testicular cancer, prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, immune system disorders such as Graves’ disease and polymyositis, skin rashes, nosebleeds, migraines, and depression.” The community also had many cases of rare diseases.
Medical studies showed that women in Pompton Lakes had a higher rate of cancer compared to the rest of New Jersey. People over eighty died more frequently in Pompton Lakes than in neighboring towns. High rates of chemical vapors were found within people’s homes; families were breathing in DuPont’s mistakes for years. From the ‘80s to present day, people are still being affected by this.
Lupiano’s suspicions that his hometown has something to do with the brain tumors are not far off. New Jersey is home to 114 toxic waste sites, dubbed “superfund sites.” These sites are known to produce toxic waste, radiation, and more. A radiological team was investigating Lupiano’s town for signs of radiation. The team has concluded their investigation, and the results are going to be released to the public shortly.
Sadly, this investigation comes too late. Lupiano’s sister died of stage 4 glioblastoma. The state of New Jersey can give the victims of such unfortunate circumstances money and promise to “stop” events like this in the future. However, how does this really help? The victims of these New Jersey communities have already suffered. New Jersey needs to take viable action to protect its citizens before tragedies like this happen again.
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