Blackford County Concerned Citizens Newsletter January 2015

January 2015

A newsletter of Blackford County Concerned Citizens developed in partnership with the Hoosier Environmental Council

In This Issue

2015 Plans

Cancer Data

Well Testing

Legislative Session

BCCC Mission

The mission of Blackford County Concerned Citizens is to improve the quality of life of Blackford County, Indiana residents by reducing the incidence of diseases, primarily through citizen action to investigate the diseases that are prevalent and by advocating to have these diseases investigated.

BCCC Plans for the New Year!

Blackford County Concerned Citizens has some events coming up:

Saturday, February 21 - students from

IPFW will be working at the Historical Society and Public Library

Saturday, March 21 - continuation of the IPFW student projects

Saturday, April 25 - public information meeting on environmental health in Blackford County and presentation of student projects

Cancer Data Update

Back in 2010 and 2011, BCCC obtained reports on cancer rates in Blackford County from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). This fall we worked with the state health department to get an update. This time the state assembled data from 1998 through 2012. Looking at that many years helps give a more accurate calculation of the rate since the county has a small population.

Blackford County's age-adjusted cancer rate for that period is 514.73 cancers per 100,000 persons per year. For comparison, Indiana's rate is 484.54 and the rate for the entire US is 460.4. The county's rate is 6% higher than the state's and that difference is statistically significant, which means it is a larger difference than could come from just normal variability. The county's rate for bladder cancer, 28.1 per 100,000 per year, was also statistically higher than the state's rate of 21.2. Colon cancer and thyroid cancer were also higher than for the state, but they did not quite reach statistical significance.

The Blackford County Health Department is aware of the new numbers and works hard to reduce cancer risk through the Blackford County Tobacco-free Taskforce. BCCC is working to reduce cancer risk through reduction in exposure to carcinogens.

* All rates are expressed per 100,000 persons.

Well Testing

Blackford County has several sites with soil that was contaminated by industrial practices in past years or by the oil and gas wells of the 1800s. Contaminants in soil can migrate into ground water. People can be exposed to the contaminants by drinking or bathing in well water.

BCCC has compiled a list of contaminants of concern and is working with the Blackford County Health Department and the state health lab to test wells near contaminated sites at no charge.

Please contact Dr. Indra Frank, ifrank@hecweb.org, if you have a well near one of the old oil/gas wells or near a contaminated site and you would like to have your water tested.

The Legislature is in Session

If you are interested in updates on environmental issues under consideration by the Indiana legislature, go to HEC's Bill Watch 2015 page.

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