A study released by the Illinois Department of Public Health shows higher-than-expected levels of cancer were found in south suburban Crestwood.
For more than two decades, Crestwood residents drank from a well that contained chemicals found in dry-cleaning solvents.
The state’s report finds between 1994 and 2006 Crestwood men had higher than expected cases of kidney and gastrointestinal cancers, and both men and women had higher rates of lung cancer.
But Melaney Arnold with the health department says there are too many variables to definitively link cancer with the tainted water.
ARNOLD: Many cancers are influenced by a combination of factors--heredity, the environment, actions people take such as smoking, alcohol, their diet.
A village official says the report strengthens Crestwood’s case that the contaminated well is not to blame for the illnesses.