Pennsylvania families demand investigation into rare cancers

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The families of young people diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer have confronted Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf over what they called his administration’s insufficient response to a health crisis they blame on pollution from the shale gas industry.

Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county region of southwestern Pennsylvania where energy companies have drilled intensively.

The cause of Ewing sarcoma is unknown, and there’s been no evidence linking the Pennsylvania cases to the natural gas industry.

But the families, confronting Wolf at the Capitol on Monday, demanded that he launch an environmental investigation into the cancers that have devastated their loved ones.

Wolf says he’s ordered his health department to look into the possibility.