Illinois residents wonder if contamination is the cause of cancer and other disease clusters

October 9, 2007 - A few years ago, residents of five small towns in northern and central Illinois started noticing an unusual number of multiple sclerosis cases among their friends and family.

They were healthy, in their teens to middle age, when they were diagnosed. Their immune systems began attacking their own myelin, the protective insulation around the spinal cord. The result was reduced or lost bodily function.

They weren't alone. Concerned residents have called the Will County Health Department about disease clusters as well.

"We hear that kind of stuff all the time," said health department spokesman Vic Reato. However, those claims are difficult to confirm, he said.

In DuPage and Will counties, residents have expressed concerns about MS clusters linked to crematoriums and fertilizers, and cancer clusters tied to chemical contamination of well water. The cancer clusters turned out to be neighborhoods where the disease occurred at normal levels for DuPage County, and they had no correlation to groundwater contamination, according to a 2006 report from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The MS clusters have yet to be investigated.

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