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Seacoast Cancer Cluster Task Force Continues Search for Answers

Jason Moon for NHPR

The Governor’s task force on the Seacoast cancer cluster investigation continues to look for what might have caused a string of rare cancer cases in children on the Seacoast.

Yesterday’s meeting at the Portsmouth City Hall focused largely on the Schiller Station power plant, which has been suggested as a potential environmental cause for the cancer cluster.

But while officials from the Department of Environmental Services offered a detailed look at what the power plant emits into the atmosphere, Representative Tom Sherman, who chairs the task force, says it will be extremely difficult to find a definitive link to the cancer cluster.

“What we find is that the more we look into something, the more we uncover –I don’t feel like we’re further away from identifying the link– but what we realize is that this is so complex.”

Another way the task force is hoping to find a connection in all that complexity is with a questionnaire recently sent to families of patients diagnosed with the two rare forms of cancer. It’s hoped that the information provided by those families may indicate a link.

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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