Unnerved residents may leave Cobh over ‘cancer risk’

Some Cobh residents are considering moving away from the town due to an elevated cancer risk, a community meeting has heard.

The gathering was organised by the Cobh Community for Change group following reports in the national media in May which labelled Cobh the “cancer capital of Ireland”.

The reports centred around a near decade-old study by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NRCI) which indicated that cancer rates in the Cork town are above average for Ireland, with significant spikes for certain types of cancer such as prostate, colorectal and breast cancer.

The meeting brought together local GPs and healthcare professionals, including Prof Colm Bradley of UCC and NRCI director Dr Harry Comber, and was attended by over 200 people who were given the opportunity to ask questions about the perceived heightened risk.

New study

According to organiser Vivienne Farrell, many people in Cobh are unnerved by the contents of the NRCI report, which covered the years 1994 to 2007, and now want new studies commissioned to clarify the apparent risks.

"People are genuinely nervous... people do definitely think there is something there that is tying the cancers into previous heavy industries in the harbour," she told The Irish Times.

“People have been thinking of moving away. People with young children are frightened, and the whole point of [the meeting] was that people could ask their own questions and get their own answers,” she continued.

“There was a man who stood up last night and said he had moved his young family away from here because he fished mackerel out of the harbour, and although it was still swimming it smelt like it was dead for three weeks. It took him four days to get his hands clean of the grease and smell.”

Environmental factors

Ms Farrell said a number of cancer survivors from the locality were also in attendance, some of whom she said were told by physicians that their illness likely came about because of environmental rather than genetic factors.

Many fear that remnants of the area’s industrialised past, such as a chemical dump beside the former Irish Steel plant on Haulbowline island, are contributing to a greater likelihood of residents contracting cancers, but this has been downplayed by the NRCI itself.

The matter has been discussed numerous times in the Oireachtas since May. New Minister for Health Simon Harris has been noncommittal on funding a new study.

Community groups are seeking to arrange further public information meetings in future, and are considering starting a petition calling on the Government to release funding so further research can be carried out.