Episode summary
NewsNation’s Reality Check reports from Keyport, New Jersey, where residents allege a “cancer cluster” connected to a long-standing coastal landfill. The report introduces local resident Sal Lagouria, who says he lost his son four years ago to a rare bone cancer and that he himself was diagnosed two weeks earlier with early-stage leukaemia. Residents are described as mapping cancer cases locally, saying the count has grown from 41 to “approaching 400”, and they accuse the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) of failing to act over decades.
The segment says NJDEP testing in 2010 detected benzene, arsenic, lead, vinyl chloride and PCBs, but that the agency maintains it has not found a clear pathway by which residents are being exposed. An independent testing specialist, Scott Smith, is shown sampling for dioxins, PCBs, semi-volatile organic compounds and toxic metals. Smith says his lab results for soil measured 31 parts per trillion TEQ for dioxin-like compounds, above what he describes as an EPA trigger threshold of 4.8 ppt for human-health follow-up testing, and he compares the situation to East Palestine, Ohio.
NJDEP is reported as declining to comment on the new testing while reiterating that its data does not indicate an exposure pathway. A resident argues that post-Hurricane Sandy conditions were not adequately revisited by the state.
