Probe launched as nearly 100 rare brain tumour cases are linked to the same New Jersey school

After losing his sister to the rare tumour, an environmental scientist set out to find the cause of the growths

A group of nearly 100 people with rare brain tumours have all been linked to the same school in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

CBS News reports that Al Lupiano, an environmental scientist, set out to research the tumours, as he had also been diagnosed with the rare growth 20 years ago. He began researching a small selection of tumour patients, but as his subject pool grew he began to notice the group's common denominator.

According to Mr Lupiano, 94 of the individuals suffering from the rare tumour are graduates of or were workers at Colonia High School.

Finding the cause of the tumours has become extremely personal for Mr Lupiano. Not only does he have the rare tumor, but his wife and sister do as well.

"Fast forward to August of last year. My sister received the news she had a primary brain tumour, herself. Unfortunately, it turned out to be stage 4 glioblastoma. Two hours later, we received information that my wife also had a primary brain tumor," Mr Lupiano told CBS News.

His sister passed away less than a month ago, which prompted Mr Lupiano to reach out to his former classmates and teachers from Colonia High School to ask if any of them were dealing with a rare brain tumour.

He said the volume of respondents was shocking. But more shocking were the implications of his discovery.

"What I find alarming is there's truly only one environmental link to primary brain tumours and that's ionizing radiation. It's not contaminated water. It's not air. It's not something in soil. It's not something done to us due to bad habits," Mr Lupiano said.

That revelation raised one very important question: if primary brain tumours' only environmental cause is ionizing radiation, is Woodbridge somehow being irradiated?

"It was virgin land. It was woods. The high school was the first thing to be there, so there was probably nothing in the ground at that time. The only thing that could have happened, potentially, was fill that was brought in during construction. We have no records 55 years ago," Woodbridge Mayor John McCormick said.

Mr McCormick has contacted the state's Department of Health, Department of Environmental Protection and the Federal Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry to investigate the discovery.

"We are looking at possible things that we can do between the town and school, and they said they will look at anything we come up with," he said.

The district superintendent, Dr Joseph Massimo, said he was waiting for further advisement from environmental agencies before reaching any conclusions about the issue, but stressed safety was his top concern.

"I'm a lifelong resident here. I raised my family here. So the health and safety of our students is of paramount importance to me," he said.

School and city officials said they planned to alert residents and parents to the unofficial research, but stressed that the findings were not an official study and that further review into the situation will be required.