Carlsbad School Officials To Debate Environmental Testing To Check For Cancer Link

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

SAN DIEGO — Carlsbad school officials may decide today whether to test the soil at one of its campuses to see if toxins in the environment are causing cancer.

Carlsbad School Superintendent John Roach says he and two parents who spearheaded the push for environmental tests have agreed to not speak to the press until after today's meeting.

Teachers and parents have urged school officials for several months to check the soil, water and air at Kelly Elementary School. Community members say several teachers and former students at the school have developed cancer over the past decade. They believe lingering pesticides from Carlsbad's agricultural days might be making people sick.

Carlsbad school district officials had said they would make a decision on testing once the results from a state cancer registry review were in. Those results released last month showed no cancer cluster in Carlsbad, but state researchers never studied Kelly Elementary specifically.

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Amita Sharma
Investigative Reporter

opening quote marks closing quote marks As an investigative reporter for KPBS, I've helped expose political scandals and dug into intractable issues like sex trafficking. I've raised tough questions about how government treats foster kids. I've spotlighted the problem of pollution in poor neighborhoods. And I've chronicled corporate mistakes and how the public sometimes ends up paying for them.