Cancer Cluster Fears Prompts Soil Testing At Iredell Schools

IREDELL COUNTY, NC — Soil at 36 Iredell County schools was recently tested and results are expected next month, according to a spokesperson for Iredell-Statesville Schools. The school board notified parents of the testing Monday as community concerns continue to mount regarding the search for an explanation for the emergence of a possible cancer cluster in Mooresville.

The school board is working in partnership with the Town of Mooresville, the Iredell Health Department, and a task force of local and state entities “who are interested in gathering factual information about a possible cancer cluster in our town.” Boen Nutting, ISS director of communications, said in a Jan. 13 letter to parents.

“The Iredell-Statesville Schools completed a full testing of our water at all 36 of our campuses last year. We also completed radon testing. All tests have come back within the normal range,” Nutting said.

Additionally, a soil test was recently completed by the county health department and those results are expected by late February, he said.

“We are fully committed to administering any and all test that are recommended to use by state and local officials as it relates to this topic," Nutting said.

SEE ALSO: Coal Ash, Cancer Panel For Mooresville Realtors Stirs Controversy

Earlier this month, an NBC News report detailed the struggle of former Mooresville resident Susan Wind and her family who have sought answers related to the existence of a cancer cluster in Mooresville after her teenage daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017. The causation for her daughter's and neighbors' cancers, Wind believes, is connected to the use of coal ash as fill dirt used throughout the Lake Norman community.

In 2018, reports emerged that 40,000 tons of coal ash had been left buried for nearly 20 years, yards away from Lake Norman High School. The discovery was made when the material, which was purchased as fill from the land's previous owner, was disturbed during construction of an apartment complex on Doolie Road, WSOC reported.

State health officials have validated that new thyroid cancer diagnosis are higher in Iredell County, particularly in the southeastern and southwestern part of the county, over a period when diagnosis also increased around the state and nationally.

"The reasons for higher rates of thyroid cancer diagnosis in southern Iredell County are not known," the January 2019 report said. "Radiation is the only environmental exposure that has been clearly linked to thyroid cancer; our review found no evidence of increased exposure to radiation based on routine monitoring of the area around the McGuire Nuclear Site during the past 40 years."

The rate of thyroid cancer diagnosis in Iredell County is about double the statewide average, NBC News reported late last week. While rates appear higher, state health officials have not officially designated the county as a cancer cluster, citing the need for more research because the clusters "can appear or disappear depending on the parameters used," Kelly Haight Connor, a Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman, told NBC.