Now his neighbors’ parents are Crusaders too: An undiagnosed cancer cluster

Randy Zook was an all-American offensive lineman, #72 on the Crusaders. Eight seasons of football at Indian Valley High School and Susquehanna University had made pain management a way of life. Ice packs. Tape wraps. Ultrasounds.

He had a bad back. And he did not truly acknowledge how much pain he had experienced until his university football career was over. A month after graduation, he had back surgery. It turned out, though, that Zook's pain probably had another cause -- aggressive colon cancer that had been spreading inside him, undiagnosed.

He died at 23, in March 2002.

Why did such a young man get colon cancer, in such an aggressive form?

And Jennifer Tietgen, 27. Brian Forgione, 24. And Patrick Kadel, 28.

All had died in a single four-month period of rapidly spreading cancers. All less than six years after they left that place by the stream in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. It seemed like too much for coincidence. To Patrick’s mother, Linda Kadel, it seemed like a red flag. What was going on in Selinsgrove, near that tiny stream?

She started to ask questions. Linda sent dozens, then hundreds, of e-mails to alumni, asking health questions. She showed her list to others, hiding the identities of sick people by using initials. Word of her research spread. Email, she learned, is powerful. She learned of other young Susquehanna alumni—ultimately 60 of them--who had cancer.

She looked around the tiny stream in Selinsgrove. Near one bank, not far from "the warehouse" where students lived, amid the vacant, run-down remains of the mill, Linda said she saw barrels that appeared to contain industrial waste. And there was a large, dingy storage shed with "Danger! Chemicals" scrawled on its sides. Above the words, a hand-rendered skull and crossbones.

She has written to state, county and local politicians and scientists. To date, no formal investigation has occurred, though the university has posted recent clean environmental test results on its website.

Debbie Magnotta, like Linda Kadel, wants answers: her son Vince Magnotta Jr., died at 20.

"I think," she told her husband, "it is up to us to do something."

Advice: If you suspect a cancer cluster, urge your state public health department and the Centers for Disease Control to investigate.

Read another story with a mother as advocate, or read Ford Turner’s source story.