Mystery of NJ neighborhood with crazy high percentage of people with cancer including 28 on one street

When one former Keyport, NJ, resident started keeping tabs of all the cancer diagnoses on and around his childhood street, the numbers were “freaking snowballing.”In recent interviews with NJ.com, Rusty Morris, 46, recounted how he’d collected the names of so many neighbors that he eventually created a map, marking the houses with red X’s for the sick.His parents’ house had an X, for his father’s prostate cancer.A house down the street had two X’s, for his uncle and his uncle’s wife. In total, Morris placed 28 X’s just on First Street, where he grew up, and 41 throughout the borough of Keyport.Speaking to the outlet about the map, Dr.

Alexis Mraz, associate professor of The College of New Jersey’s Department of Public Health, said it looked like a “crazy high percentage [of cancer patients].” “That looks insane,” she said. While doctors, local civil servants, state and federal officials, and residents can’t say definitively what’s behind the cancer cases and whether or not they’re connected, many point to the nearby dump that was closed in 1979 — and that’s has been oozing carcinogenic chemicals into the surrounding air, water and soil for at least 50 years, per local reports and multiple environment assessments.Because of potential toxic exposures, it’s very possible that Morris’s map is an undercount. “There are likely more cancer cases,” Mraz said.“I think it’s definitely worth looking into.”NJ.com reporters cite multiple medical experts from around the country who agree that the site needs more — and urgent — study, and that there’s mounting evidence of a potential “cancer cluster.”The 50-acre plot that eventually became a landfill started in the early 20th century as a small aircraft hub, and bears this legacy in its current name: Aeromarine Industrial Park.

In 1962, it transitioned into a dumping site, until it was shut down. But in the decades since, the company that owns the property has be...