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September l3, l988
Hagerstown, Maryland 21740
The Board of County Commissioners of Washington County convened as the Board
of Health at l0:30 a.m. by President Ronald L. Bowers, with the following members
present: Vice President Richard E. Roulette, and Commissioners R. Lee Downey,
Linda C. Irvin and Martin L. Snook. The Board of Health met to hear concerns from
residents regarding the cancer rate in Chewsville. Also present at the hearing
were representatives from the Washington County Health Department and State Health
Department.
Dr. George Comstock, Director of the Johns Hopkins Research Center and Director of
Research for the Washington County Health Department reported that his staff has
spent a total of several weeks working with information regarding Chewsville since
his research unit responds to requests to look into reports of cancer clusters.
Dr. Comstock then detailed several studies done in Chewsville in which statistics
indicate that the cancer problem there does not appear to be any worse than in
other areas. Dr. John Neill, Washington County Health Officer, distributed copies
of a letter from Dr. Henry Wasserman, Medical Epidemiologist at the Center for
Environmental Health for the Department of the Environment, which concluded that
the death rate from cancer in Washington County is significantly lower than that
for the whole State of Maryland.
Rev. John Schildt and Ronald Hovis, spokesmen for Chewsville, stated that the
Health Department worked mostly with statistics but they would like a study done to
look at the variables and view Chewsville as an individual community. Mr. Hovis
presented a letter requesting that testing be done of the water in Edgemont
Reservor, for records to be analyzed from the R.C. Wilson Water Treatment Plant,
testing of the residue coating on the inside of the water pipes which are part of
the Edgemont Reservoir, locate the site of pesticide and fertilizer mixing at the
Chewsville Co-op, locate the site of the dump and hog far at Grimm's Salvage Yard
and the dump at Devil's Racecourse and to canvass all households in the area. Mr.
Hovis also requested that the testing be done by a private, non-governmental
agency, and he provided a list of companies who could perform the testing.
Commissioner Bowers stated that they will have studies done regarding this problem
and the Commissioners will determine how extensive the studies may be and who will
be performing the testing.
The Meeting was reconvened in Regular Session at ll:00 a.m.
County Attorney
, Clerk