Soil, water tests planned for Ohio cancer cluster

Soil and water tests beginning in May will shed light on chemical contaminants found in Green Springs, Ohio, according to the Associated Press. Appliance maker Whirlpool, which owns a facility in the town, will pay for more than 300 samples.

The sampling comes after an initial assessment from the EPA indicated elevated levels of PCBs, a group of chemicals that may be linked to cancer near a site once owned by Whirlpool. While it’s unclear if the chemicals are a carcinogen, 40 area residents have been diagnosed with cancer since the mid-1990s.

Many of those diagnoses came in a four-year period, 2002 to 2006, which led Ohio health authorities to declare the area a cancer cluster.