EPA report troubles Ohio cancer cluster families

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on the findings, though, doesn't link the contaminants with the cancer cluster that has been under investigation by state and federal agencies for more than six years. Nearly 40 young people have been diagnosed with cancer since the mid-1990s in the area.

The odds are against coming up with an answer, even with this recent finding, because pinpointing the cause of a cancer cluster rarely happens.

Environmental regulators began testing for contamination in the Clyde area between Cleveland and Toledo earlier this year. State agencies already had conducted a variety of tests, including air and groundwater sampling and radiation checks at homes and schools.

The EPA found that soil samples taken in June near a basketball court showed metals and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in amounts exceeding what the EPA considers safe levels.

The park in the village of Green Springs was built in the 1950s by Whirlpool Corp., which has a washing machine factory in Clyde. The park closed about five years ago.

A tip left on a hotline indicated the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company used a black sludge-like material to fill in the area near the basketball court, the EPA report said.