Modock Road Springs & Village of Victor

  • Modock Road Springs

    In response to a request by area residents and public officials, the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) agreed to conduct a review of cancer and birth outcomes among residents of an area near the Modock Road Springs in the Town of Victor. This review looks at levels of health outcomes among the population of a specific geographic area and provides residents with information about numbers of outcomes in their area compared with expected numbers based on statewide data. This type of review cannot link cause (exposure) and effect (health outcome) and cannot prove that an individual's health problem was caused by an environmental exposure. A report on the review of cancer among residents of the area was released in 2009 (NYS DOH, 2009). The current report describes the review of birth outcomes among babies born to people living in the study area near the Modock Road Springs in the Town of Victor).

    The neighborhood within the study area is located above a mile-long area of groundwater contaminated with industrial solvents. Results of an environmental investigation of drinking water and soil vapor intrusion sampling conducted by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, in conjunction with the NYS DOH Center for Environmental Health, showed the presence of two completed pathways of human exposure to contaminants in the groundwater in the study area. These pathways included ingestion of contaminated drinking water from private wells and the inhalation of contaminants that had entered homes through soil vapor intrusion. According to the data from the environmental investigation, a limited number of residences were impacted by these completed exposure pathways.

  • Village of Victor

    The New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) conducted a health outcomes review for the Village of Victor because of concerns about health effects from chemicals in the Village water supply before 1990. A health outcomes review examines a particular group of people as a whole to see how it compares to a group not living in the area of concern. It cannot link an environmental exposure to a specific health effect and it cannot tell us anything about individual health problems.

    This health review included data as early as 1980 (before there was any evidence of contamination) and as late as 2007. Even though the use of Modock Road Springs as a water source was stopped in 1990 after samples showed chemical contamination, some health effects, like cancer, may take many years to develop. Therefore, we looked at cancer as well as birth outcomes and birth defects for people who used Village water. We compared the number of these health outcomes for people who lived in Victor to people who lived in the rest of the state.

    Health Outcomes Review: Birth Outcomes and Cancer

    Comments on the draft Health Outcomes Review are encouraged and should be sent to the Department of Health by May 17, 2012.

    New York State staff is available to answer questions and receive comments about this health outcomes review. This report is being released as a draft for public comment. You may send comments by e-mail to beoe@health.state.ny.us or by mail to NYSDOH, Center for Environmental Health--Victor Comments, 547 River Street, Room 200, Troy, NY 12180.

Additional Information

For copies of the full reports and for additional information, please contact Mr. James Bowers, NYS DOH, Center for Environmental Health, Bureau of Environmental & Occupational Epidemiology, (518) 402-7950.