Pennsylvania's Department of Health says it is assessing cancer rates in the area surrounding a former Lackawanna County manufacturing facility.
The Olyphant plant changed hands over the years, being known as Specialty Records, WEA Manufacturing and Cinram prior to its closure seven years ago.
"The Department is currently evaluating existing data available on cancer to assess whether residents in the surrounding communities of the former facility are experiencing more cancer than neighboring communities. Once the assessment is finalized, information will be shared with the community," department spokesperson Mark O’Neill said in a statement to WVIA.
When asked about a timeline for the evaluation, O'Neill referred back to the previous statement and did not offer any additional information.
The plant, which produced and packaged CDs and DVDs, was owned by Paris-based Technicolor when it shut down in 2018. Local media reports indicate it was demolished in 2020.
It appears that the division under which the plant had been owned was been spun off as a new firm, Vantiva, in 2022. Technicolor, meanwhile, went out of business in March of this year, according to multiple reports.
Efforts to reach a spokesperson were not immediately successful.
Elected officials weigh in
The state evaluation comes on the heels of claims by a former employee's daughter that chemicals used in the plant caused widespread cancer, and a letter from former U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright urging the department to look into allegations of a cancer cluster.
Cartwright requested in that letter to the state's Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen:
- Start efforts to formally gather reports and data from the plant’s former employees/ former employees’ family members.
- Analyze the data it receives.
- Acknowledge the health risk represented by the reports and data.
- Offer healthcare assistance, including health advice, to surviving former employees who had prolonged contact with the potentially hazardous chemicals while on the job.
Cartwright's successor, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who was elected in November, is also aware of the issue.
“Rep. Bresnahan is concerned about the significant amount of cancer cases affecting those who used to work at the Cinram plant in Olyphant. He would like to see a full investigation, and his team is tracking the issue closely. Rep. Bresnahan will continue to communicate with officials at the state and local levels as well as those at the federal level to ensure accountability and answers for his constituents,” Bresnahan spokesperson Hannah Pope said in a statement to WVIA.
'...until there's acknowledgement'
Aline Browning says she brought the issue to elected officials.
Her father, Charles, died at 62 after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer that metastasized and moved to his brain in August 2023. He died that November.
Charles Browning worked at the Olyphant plant for 26 years.
His daughter says she believes exposure to chemicals used in the plant caused her father and other former employees to get sick.
So far, Browning says she has independently confirmed 100 cancer-related deaths out of 303 former employees. She also said she identified 71 current cancer diagnoses in living former employees.
Browning says she wants the state to recognize the plant as the site of a cancer cluster to bring closure and financial compensation to former employees.
“I won't stop until there's acknowledgement. In a perfect world, the Commonwealth would step up and say, ‘Okay, let's clean up this mess. Let's write a bill that will take care of whatever these people's needs are,’" she said.
What is a cancer cluster?
According to the CDC, “A cancer cluster is defined as a greater than expected number of the same or related cancer cases that occur within a group of people in a geographic area over a defined period of time.”
Determining whether a location is a cancer cluster can take years, according to Jerry Fagliano, a clinical professor of environmental and occupational health at Drexel University.
One of the challenges in confirming a cancer cluster is isolating the cause of cancer. That investigation can be complicated by the fact that many factors can lead to an individual’s diagnosis, including smoking, drinking and family history of cancer, he said
“Distinguishing in any given individual's case, what is the exposure, or the sequence of events that led to that person's cancer, those kinds of tools generally don't exist. Most cancers that are caused by environmental agents are caused by multiple factors,” Fagliano said.
Former employees’ experiences
Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was a main chemical used in the plant, according to Nancy Atkinson, who worked at the facility in various positions, including as a supervisor from 1978 to 2006.
“TCE is one of those chemicals that has been fairly recently determined to be a likely carcinogen in human beings,” Fagliano said. “The cancers that TCE seem to be most related to are increases in kidney cancer, possibly lymphoma and possibly other cancers.”
Some former employees do not feel that they were properly protected during their exposure to chemicals like TCE, nickel and sulfur.
“It was more about the bottom line than it was as far as the safety of the employees,” Atkinson said.
She said her job included direct exposure to the chemicals.
“We did not have proper ventilation, and we only had these gloves that would go up to your elbows,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson herself is healthy now. However, she’s seen many of her former colleagues get sick.
James Snee fought a rare form of leukemia after working in the plant from 1992 to 1998. The diagnosis came in 2001. A bone marrow transplant saved his life. Others were not so lucky, Snee says.
“The woman I sat next to for four years, she didn't make it,” Snee said. “She was gone within a couple years. What are the odds that we both be diagnosed with leukemia within a couple years of each other?”
The 55-year-old said he was never directly exposed to the chemicals, as he worked mostly in the plant’s human resources office.
Snee shared his story with Browning to help her research. He said he can’t prove if his diagnosis is a direct result of working at the plant.
Next steps
Browning wants to bring people’s voices directly to local and state officials.
She will host a town hall meeting today, Saturday, May 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Throop Civic Center. The state’s Department of Health, former employees, their families and elected officials are all invited to attend.
“I want this officially declared a disaster, so that some of these people can get some relief,” Browning said.
She is also conducting a fundraiser to hire a private investigator.
“Just because I only have confirmed 100 deaths to be cancer-related that doesn’t mean the other 203 are not cancer related,” Browning said. “I just am unable to confirm cause of death. Hence, the reason for the town hall meeting and fundraising efforts. We want to hire a private investigator to help in confirming the cause of death and to help identify and more victims.”
