Arsenic contamination in groundwater may be cause of elevated cancer rates in Buck county, PA

June 24, 2007 - For years, discussions about the arsenic in the groundwater of Central and Upper Bucks have focused on what a hassle new, stricter EPA standards were and how much it was going to cost local water suppliers to remove it.

The word “cancer” was hardly ever mentioned. But arsenic in drinking water does cause cancer.

“We now have strong evidence that it causes bladder cancer, it causes skin cancer, it causes lung cancer, and there is suggestive evidence that it causes kidney cancer,” said Dr. Kenneth Cantor, of the National Cancer Institute, one of the nation's foremost researchers into the links between environmental contaminants and cancer.

Another unsettling fact also has gone unmentioned:

Bucks County has a significantly higher rate of bladder cancer than expected — about 23 percent higher for men and 27 percent higher for women, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

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