Tumors Linked to a Town’s Drinking Water?

This was a story featured on a local news channel on 19 May.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the story on television because I had to work, but I did read it.  The only reason why I read it, is because I wanted to know the story behind the brain image they show with the tumor.  First, the actual news story is about a small town called Cameron that is located about 52 miles northeast of Kansas City.  In recent months they’ve had reported cases of people having brain tumors.  In that town with a population of around 6,500; twelve actually have brain tumors and those twelve cases have been diagnosed just within the past seven months.  All the people who have these brain tumors have one thing in common, and that is they’ve all drank the town water.  Headaches were the main symptoms the people (some even as young as 8 years old) have experienced before being diagnosed.  Some people there are understandingly concerned.

“Dying. That’s my greatest concern, and how many other people are walking around and have it and don’t even know it… In this town, and there are a dozen in six months, something doesn’t add up,”  (Helms)

“She said she was sorry to have to tell me, but he had a mass that they didn’t know what it was,” Jessica Hammer said. “They weren’t able to remove the tumor. They did what they call a limited surgery, which was just draining the tumor. I wonder all the time if there was something I could have done.” (KMBC)

“You take the first victim, you take the second victim and you look at each other and you say, ‘Whoa! What do we have in common?’” said Erickson. “Then you add the third one and the fourth one. I’m sure if I was one of the diagnosed, I would not think it was coincidence. Thank God.” (KMBC)

A state representative (Jim Guest) is going to do an investigation of this own to see what exactly if anything is the cause.  The CDC has looked into possible contamination of the local reservoir by a nearby hog farm, or even pesticides that may have contaminated the water.  This sounds serious, and it obviously is for those affected.  The news website’s picture was the most interesting thing to me and caught my eye.  It shows a large white abnormality in the medial (toward the center) area of the brain.  I’ve been racking my own brain and rummaging through my neuroscience book to figure out just exactly where it may be.  From what I have gathered, this particular brain tumor seems to be located above just the corpus callosum* on either the left or right side of the cortex located in the structure called the Cingulate Cortex.  

 

- The uncolored area resting below the violet (cingulate sulcus), excluding the circular area and areas below that, is the corpus callosum.  The cingulate sulcus is the cingulate cortex.  Both are part of the limbic system of the brain.

I don’t know if the picture from the site is at all related to the incidents in Cameron, or if it’s just a random image picture to show what a tumor in the brain looks like.  Nevertheless it piqued my interest of what this person may be going through with that thing in their head.

 From what I know (I am an amateur/undergrad), the image of whoever that may be, may have a problem with emotions such as controlling or expressing fear and irritability, and feelings of depression (if the tumor is where I think it is).  They may also be apathetic during an emotional or highly traumatic event in their life. Such as witnessing a horrible accident, feelings for the person(s) involved may be at a minimum.  However, they would still be able to walk, run, talk, play sports, complete physics equations, or read a long novel with no real problems.  ”Damage to the anterior (front) area of the Cingulate Cortex can also cause big (much more noticeable than normal) problems doing the Stroop Task.” (Oxford Journals)

Back to the story.  Well, I think it lacks some significance for me to believe that this is a big problem.  Perhaps I’m just “city folk” or whatever and don’t understand.  The reporter only interviewed those who were affected in some way, confirming with what the reporter wanted to believe and report.  I did not see any statements from people who drank the town water and were fine.  Additionally, twelve out of 6,500 is approximately 0.0018% of the total population who supposedly drink the same water and are fine or are not speaking out.  Twelve cases of diagnosed brain tumors in less than a year in a town that size may be odd, but there is not a strong link of the town’s drinking water causing these brain tumors.

Weak story.

*-Corpus Callosum: A bundle of axons located in the middle of the brain that connect the two communicating halves of the brain. (my neuroscience book).