Behind the hundreds of cancer cases reported in Keyport and neighboring Union Beach are families searching for potential links to the former Aeromarine landfill.
NJ.com investigative reporter Karin Price Mueller’s latest reporting focuses on the people living with that uncertainty. Among them is Angelita “Gigi” Liaguno-Dorr, who owns JakeaBob’s Bay in Union Beach. She grew up near the landfill and now is being treated for colon cancer. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and leukemia, and one of Gigi’s employees lost her 8-year-old son to leukemia.
Price Mueller said Liaguno-Dorr can look around her restaurant and identify customer after customer whose families have been affected by the disease. After a recent test, “things are still stable for her,” Price Mueller told NJ Spotlight News. “But it was really interesting to hear her be able to say how many people she knew from the community who were affected.”
Price Mueller also spoke about Richard Morris, a lifelong Keyport resident who is being treated for prostate cancer. His son, Rusty, helped prompt the NJ.com investigation, published in April, after he began marking cancer cases on a map of the neighborhood where he grew up.
“At the time he had 12 cases,” Price Mueller said. “By the time we published the story, it was 41 cases. And now I’ve had 470 reported to date.”
No proven link
Another resident, Sal Liguori, lives at the entrance to the Aeromarine site. His son died of cancer four years ago, and Liguori was recently diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He is now advocating for cancer screenings and more testing in the community.
The residents’ stories come as soil testing, commissioned by NJ.com and conducted by a New York University research team, found elevated concentrations of heavy metals in residential yards and public parks. In some locations, the readings reached 200 times acceptable state levels.
The findings do not prove the contamination came from Aeromarine or caused any of the reported illnesses.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is conducting separate testing at 16 locations in public rights-of-way: 13 in Keyport and three in Union Beach. Soil and groundwater will be analyzed for volatile organic compounds to determine whether contamination could be creating a pathway for harmful vapors to affect humans.
A study commissioned by NJ.com found people who live near the landfill are 15% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than others in Monmouth County. Whether the illnesses constitute a cancer cluster, and whether any cases are linked to environmental contamination, will require further investigation.
“Really what has to happen is that the Health Department, which has access to everybody’s cancer cases, needs to take a closer look to determine if anything could be a cancer cluster,” Price Mueller said.
