Ten children, aged 6 months to 13 years, all living in the same geographical area north of the Jura, developed cancer. An epidemiological investigation has just been opened by the Regional Health Agency.
They are ten children, residing in Les Rousses, Morbier, Morez, Saint-Pierre and Prémanon, in the north of the Jura, to have developed pediatric cancer. The youngest is 6 months old at the time of diagnosis, the oldest 13 years old.
How to explain such a concentration of cases? This is what the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Bourgogne-Franche-Comté will have to determine. Seized last July because of an “abnormally high number of cancers affecting children” residing in five neighboring towns in the north of the Jura, it announced Thursday in a statement the opening of an epidemiological investigation.
“Based on this report and after contact with the families, the agency drew up a list of ten cases, in conjunction with the attending physicians and the CHRU of Besançon, which provided support for the confirmation of the diagnoses”, specifies the ARS in the press release.
A survey over several months
The objective of this epidemiological investigation, which should last several months, is twofold: first, to identify other possible new cases of which it has not been aware so far. But also establish a connection between the children in order to determine the existence of common environmental exposures.
“The confrontation of all the data collected will make it possible to decide on the plausibility of a link between suspected exposures and the occurrence of the aggregate of cases”, notes the regional agency.
Pending the results, an information meeting was held in mid-October with the families to “discuss the approach, its objectives, the method used and the involvement of these families in the process.” In particular, they will have to answer a detailed questionnaire to analyze the paths of the children and identify any common points.
This concentration of pediatric cancers is reminiscent similar cases identified in Eure, where nine children aged 5 to 11 are being followed by the Rouen University Hospital for cancer. All live or are kept in the communes of Igoville or Pont-de-l’Arche, within a radius of 3 km. The epidemiological investigation opened at the beginning of October by the Regional Health Agency will in particular have to look into the responsibility of the chemical industries located on the banks of the Seine, not far from the residences of the children.
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