Mysterious case: 65 Americans with extremely rare brain tumors, all related to the same school

When a very, very rare disease occurs in several members of a family, a genetic predisposition is thought of. But it's surprising that there are other people outside of that family with the same illness, and the common link here is a high school.

Al Lupiano, a former New Jersey resident, discovered the shocking link after several members of his own family were diagnosed with the same rare brain tumor.

Mr. Al is an environmental scientist, and he was diagnosed with the disease 20 years ago, and still suffers from certain sequelae. But there are people in his family who suffer even more.

Mr. Al Lupiano.

Al Lupiano told CBS2: 'Last August, my sister was diagnosed with a primary brain tumor. Unfortunately, it was stage 4 glioblastoma. Two hours later I received word that my wife had also been diagnosed with the same disease'.

This is an extremely rare disease, so Mr. Al was surprised and began to investigate. Unexpectedly, he found 65 people with this rare disease, one thing they all have in common is that they all went to or worked at Colonia High School (Woodbridge, New Jersey, USA).

Mr. Al said: 'I started researching and 3 people became 5 people, 5 people became 7 people, then 7 people became 15 people'.

Unfortunately, Mr. Al's sister passed away a month ago and after that, he posted on social media, asking former students of the school to tell about their health condition, or ask those who studied / worked. going there to see if anyone else has the same illness.

There are at least 65 rare cases linked to the same school.

Mr Al said: 'What I find alarming is that there is actually only one link between the environment and the disease, which is ionizing radiation. It's not water or air pollution. Not something in the ground. Nor is it due to the bad habits of people'.

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormick has now asked the Health and Environment agencies to look into the matter. He said that the school was built in 1967, on an area of ​​land that was previously just a forest, not used for anything, so it is very likely that there is no poison on the ground. This fact makes things even more confusing.

An investigation is currently underway at Colonia High School.

Mr. Al is currently working with school administrators on a joint investigation and the school says any findings will be made public, because the health and safety of students is of the utmost importance.