Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JOSEPH PICARD
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP -- Ocean County College has hired PMK Group of Kenilworth to help it identify and root out any possible cancer-causing agents in buildings on campus.
The college's board of trustees awarded the contract at Tuesday's meeting.
Since March, the state Department of Health and Senior Services has been inspecting the Instructional Building, but has found no active agent in the building. PMK Group will widen the survey to include other buildings, OCC officials said.
The college called the state in when three faculty members who use the Instructional Building were diagnosed with different forms of cancer at roughly the same time. Some members of the campus community have pointed to a possible longer-range trend.
The student newspaper, the Viking News, has reported that at least 20 faculty and staff members have contracted cancer since the 1980s.
Karen Bosley, professor of humanities and adviser to the Viking News, did an unofficial count and found 33 cases of cancer among mostly faculty members in the last 20 years. She said that 19 had died.
OCC President Jon H. Larson said in April that there appeared to be a "rather high incidence of faculty and staff diagnosed with cancer in a relatively short period of time."
Larson has since said that he believes the incidence of cancer at OCC is not out of the ordinary.
A state epidemiological investigation team has also begun studying the cancer cases at OCC to try to determine possible common sources.
The state confirmed that studies of campus buildings for possible health hazards have taken place in the past but has not made specifics available.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 5/30/02
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