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State Probes Cancer At High School

8 People Tied To School Have Tumors

POSTED: 2:08 pm MST March 21, 2008
UPDATED: 4:51 pm MST March 21, 2008

State health experts are trying to determine if there's a link between Tempe's Corona del Sol High School and eight people there who say they have tumors.

Parents said they believe there is a higher-than-normal number of students and teachers at the school getting tumors and cancer, possibly because of poor air quality and mold.

Pamela Rupprecht said she believes there might be a link between the building and her daughter's illness.

"In October 2003, she had this lump," Rupprecht said.

She said her daughter, Sarah, had her left ovary removed shortly after her graduation because of a tumor growing there.

Debbie Casey-Carboni said her daughter, Cara, graduated from the school several years ago.

"She had a giant bone cell tumor in her right wrist," she said.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has been sent in to look for a possible link.

"It's possible but our role is to determine if it's likely," said Ward Jacox. "What's going on here?"

The department is conducting a confidential survey and asking people connected with the school who have had tumors to fill out the form and return it.

They'll take the information and see if there's a way to determine if any of the anecdotal evidence can be proven scientifically.

Rupprecht said the whole ordeal has tested her family and she added people who can fix things at the school need to.

"Just be human," she said. "You've got to do something."

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