POOLESVILLE, Md. -- Montgomery County is studying a high number of cancer cases in the Poolesville community, the Gazette reported.
Residents believe the reason could be in the water.
One resident alerted the Montgomery County Department of Health after his pregnant wife, who has no family history of cancer, was diagnosed with renal cancer in October.
Their neighbor, a 15-year resident of Poolesville who also has no family history of cancer and who doesn't drink or smoke, was diagnosed with a cancer that affects the salivary glands two years ago. Another woman on the street was diagnosed with the same rare form of cancer 14 years ago, the Gazette reported.
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Some residents wonder whether a trash incinerator, a nuclear facility or a coal-burning power plant is to blame, but there is also concern about Poolesville's water supply, samples from which have tested for high -- but necessarily above federal limits -- levels of radionuclide particles, which the EPA said can cause cancer in large doses over a long period of time.
