The cases look to be connected over a 25-year period
Both current and ex-students and teachers alike are demanding answers after nearly 100 brain tumours have been linked to a school in New Jersey.
A total of 94 ex-pupils and staff who graduated from Colonia High School between 1975 and 2000 are said to have been diagnosed with rare brain tumours, with several having already died from forms of brain cancer and associated illnesses over the years.
As initially reported by NJ.com and the Star Ledger, the connection was, in part, made by former staff member, Al Lupiano, who has told multiple other outlets, “I will not rest until I have answers. I will uncover the truth.”
Now 50, Lupiano is among many whose lives appear to have been affected by his time at the school, having been diagnosed with a tumour back in the late 1990s when he was just 27.
In addition to his own illness, his wife Michele was also diagnosed with a primary brain tumour and, earlier this year, his younger sister Angela – another suffering from stage 4 glioblastoma (a form of brain cancer) – sadly died aged just 44.
Alarmed by the unbelievable frequency in such a select group, Lupiano decided to start a Facebook group asking locals if they knew about anyone with similar diagnoses and, before he knew it, the number of people reporting similar cases just kept increasing.
Speaking to CBS News, the New Jersey local said that detailed how he “started doing some research” and soon enough “the three [he, his wife and sister] became five; the five became seven, the seven became 15”.
Lupiano, an environmental scientist himself, is now working with local officials to determine what caused so many people to develop “extremely” rare malignant brain tumours.
The investigation is now underway as to what the cause of the connected cases may be, with many suggesting that students and staff could have been exposed to radiation for more than two decades.
A doctor on TikTok recently shared a video explaining the bizarre circumstances, citing that these kinds of tumours and cancers usually only appear in three people per every 300,000. However, the average is alarmingly higher when it comes to Colonia High, which recorded 84 from 1975-1995.
@drjoe_md Brain tumors at colonia high school. #braincancer #glioblastoma #braintumor #radiation #medicalmystery #doctor ♬ Chill Hip hop 37(932007) – 212soundworks
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