Do You Believe There Are County ‘Cancer Pockets?’

Utter the words “cancer pocket” and immediately, the community is divided.
There are those who steadfastly believe Cape May County harbors areas where cancer is prevalent. They point up and down streets to friends and neighbors, family members or acquaintances that either have, had or passed on from assorted cancers.
Those folks believe with all their heart and soul that such pockets of illness are as real as rising taxes.
On the other hand are those who totally disbelieve the notion that pockets of cancer exist.
With two distinct camps living in the same community, one must be aligned with one or the other.
At a recent freeholder meeting, the subject focused on these “cancer pockets.” Freeholder Gerald Thornton replied that the county’s senior citizen population is why cancer cases seem in greater number here.
Various cancers manifest themselves in older people, he said, and that is why it appears some areas have higher cases of cancer than others. Granted that is one way to look at the matter.
With due respect to the freeholder, I disagree. There are many who are found with the disease, or who die of cancer here who have not attained senior citizen status. I do not consider middle 40s or even 60s to be of “senior” status. That could be because I’m at the door of that silver-haired legion, and I don’t feel I’ve earned the right to that revered title.
I was getting my weekly order of lunchmeat in a local deli when the lady behind the counter began telling me about her mother’s brush with cancer. As with many things, nothing gets our attention faster than when an illness strikes a loved one.
It was her mother, she said, who had been diagnosed with a tumor, and it was in such a place that it was inoperable.
How, she wondered, could that happen to a woman who did not smoke, lived a clean lifestyle, and was always in relatively good health. She was convinced that cancer pockets exist.
Couple that, she said, with her teenage son whose lymph glands were swollen, and feared a round of tests that might prove the worst. He, too, she said, never smoked or did anything that would otherwise lead to cancer.
The good lady summed it up gritting her teeth, “It’s the water!” she declared.
To add a bright note, she said her mother had joined a church prayer group that believed in healing, and she really prayed as never before. She also attended a healing service in Wildwood, and, she swears, it was there, touched by the healer at the ceremony, that she felt the power of the Almighty, fell backwards and, yes, was subsequently found by her physician to be free of any cancer.
He could not believe that tumor had vanished, but it did. Who was more surprised in that case, the patient of the doctor?
The woman behind the counter said she is on a mission to “prove” that there is something in the water that causes sickness among many people in this county.
She also said her son no longer drinks tap water, but instead drinks bottled water. He is suffering from swollen lymph glands. His case is still undetermined, but his mother continues to pray for his healing.
Health officials will discount the notion there is anything in the water we drink that causes cancer. Regardless, cancer cases seem to abound in certain neighborhoods. What is the common thread there? Could it be the water or the air, or perhaps something in the ground?
In the past, industrial waste was simply dumped in woods or swamps. It wasn’t that anyone meant evil; they were unaware of the toxicity of what they were dumping.
The notion of plumes of pollution was unknown earlier. Consider, for example, the area in Cape May where a coal gasification plant was located on Lafayette Street. Many folks who lived there contracted all sorts of cancers and other physical problems.
Could it be those people who contracted cancer were simply among an unfortunate lot who showed symptoms sooner rather than later?
There were businesses that dumped toxic waste into the ground, which became brown fields. Oddly, many people around those parcels, who drank well water from those places, contracted cancers. Or was that just the way it was?
A common thread in many communities is water. It makes sense that it ought to be the first substance examined if officials really want to disprove the theory of cancer pockets.
Until such action is taken, and a reliable report is given that all is well on the water front, we will continue to have those who staunchly believe cases of cancer here are not due merely to our aging population.
Yes, we may ignore certain facts to our hazard, but that does not lessen the impact that cancer has on lives of our families and neighbors.
I do not believe age is the key-contributing factor in local cancer rates. There has to be something greater causing such woe. That’s my opinion for what it’s worth.