Colonia High School Cancer Cases & Radiation Exposure

An individual in New Jersey has alerted the media about a public health concern involving over a hundred local people diagnosed with rare cancers. Colonia High School in Woodbridge, New Jersey may be the common link between the unusual number of rare cancer cases.

Dozens of former Colonia High School students have been diagnosed with rare cancers, such as large brain tumors called Acoustic Neuroma (AN) and Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM).

It is currently unknown why so many Woodbridge students later developed these cancers, though it is well known that radiation exposure can cause brain tumors.

Theories abound, but some suggest the school property could be contaminated with radioactive materials. The Woodbridge Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry could be called to open an investigation.

There is a potential link between Colonia High School and a Middlesex, New Jersey, Middlesex Sampling Plant. The sampling plant has closed, but was once an “entry point” for African uranium ores for use in the early atomic energy program. The Middlesex plant received uranium, thorium and beryllium ores between the 1940s and 1967, around the same time Colonia High School was built. The school property, which is less than ten miles away, may have been inadvertently contaminated with these radioactive materials.

The Lyon Firm is currently involved with property contamination cases, and investigates toxic exposure cases on behalf of plaintiffs nationwide.