2008.08.25 – BREAKING NEWS-Registry confirms 33 cases of polycythemia vera in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties
BREAKING NEWS:Registry confirms 33 cases of polycythemia vera in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties at 7:48 p.m.
By: Michael Rubinkam
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008 7:51 PM EDT
Nearly a year after federal epidemiologists first sounded the alarm over a cluster of rare blood cancers in northeastern Pennsylvania, their research has zeroed in on a hardscrabble region 80
miles northwest of Philadelphia that is home to several Superfund sites as well as a power plant fired by waste coal.
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said Monday that it confirmed a cluster of polycythemia vera, or PV, in a 15-mile stretch between Hazleton and Tamaqua.
Residents of the area were four times as likely to suffer from PV as residents living in outlying areas, according to the government.