CASTINE – A small group of residents in this coastal Hancock County town has raised concerns that there may be a higher than normal concentration of people diagnosed with cancer in their community, and they are seeking local, state and federal help to prove them wrong.

Or right.

Using anecdotal information, this group, the Castine Environmental Health Committee, has identified 55 people in town who have died from or been diagnosed with cancer in the past several years. Included in those numbers are part-time residents, summer residents and those who have moved to town, as well as natives and year-round residents. Castine has a year-round population of 1,390, which swells significantly in the summer.

Though committee members acknowledge that they don’t know the significance of those numbers, they said the rate of cancer seems high for such a small community.

“It certainly feels like it is,” said committee member Karen Siegel. “It seemed like every time you’d go out to dinner, you’d hear of someone else who has been diagnosed with cancer. People started saying, ‘What’s going on here?”‘

Beverly Bishop lost two close friends to cancer recently, one last year, the other this year.

“The second one made me angry,” she said. “We’re doing this out of that wonderful anger; not because we feel helpless, because there are small things we can do.”

There are many variables in dealing with cancer, and state and local officials have cautioned against drawing conclusions based on the committee’s information. A team from the Maine Cancer Registry will review state cancer statistics to determine whether there are, in fact, elevated levels of cancer in the town. In addition, as a result of the committee’s efforts, the town has appointed a biostatistical study group to gather information on the incidence of cancer in Castine.

This summer, the citizens’ committee has been investigating two environmental factors that – although there is no direct evidence to connect them to the town’s cancer cases – are areas they said need to be investigated: pesticide use and the Callahan Mine in Brooksville.

They have taken on the pesticide issue directly and are working to educate the public about the dangerous chemicals in pesticides and to offer safe alternatives.

“Our intentions are clear,” Bishop said. “We want a pesticide-free town.”

The group has contacted some of the larger landowners in town, including the golf club and Maine Maritime Academy, and has initial positive responses from both. The town’s source of drinking water includes municipal wells. According to Jeffrey Siegel, a committee member, part of the watershed is under the golf club.

“We know the water source comes partly from the golf course,” Siegel said.

The town water is tested regularly under state guidelines and comes out clean, Siegel said. But the group’s concern is that the testing is done in December, when there is little or no pesticide use. The group has asked the town’s utility board to have water testing done in June.

Although town use of pesticides has been inconsistent in recent years, Town Manager Dale Abernethy said the selectmen have banned the use of pesticides and fertilizers with pesticides on town property.

“We’ll let Mother Nature take care of business,” he said.

The Callahan Mine is a different matter. The former zinc and copper mine is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. The EPA, working with state agencies, has been studying the site to evaluate the risks to humans and the environment posed by metals leaching from it. That investigation phase is nearing an end, according to Edward Hathaway, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the site.

Committee members fear that contamination from the mine site may have reached Castine, which is less than two miles from the outflow of Goose Cove where the mine is located.

The Bagaduce River flows past that outflow, with the incoming tide traveling directly toward Castine twice a day, said Siegel. Also, he said, the prevailing winds are from the southwest and blow right across the mine site and toward town.

“It’s like there’s an arrow pointing to Perkins Street,” he said.

Perkins Street runs along the Bagaduce River and, based on the committee survey, is the area with the highest level of cancer in town.

Although the studies at the mine site have been going on for several years, Siegel said no work has been done in Castine.

The committee has set a meeting with representatives from the EPA at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, at Emerson Hall. Townspeople are encouraged to show up to ask questions. Committee members will hand out informational fliers at the post office from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Hathaway confirmed that the Callahan investigation has not included sampling in Castine.

“All of the data collected to date suggests that the contamination is found primarily in, within and adjacent to the waste piles as well as in the sediments of Goose Cove and Goose Pond,” Hathaway said in an e-mail Friday. “The analysis of data is not complete and we will carefully evaluate whether any contamination could have been transported to Castine or to areas between the site and Castine.”

Hathaway said EPA would consider expanding the investigation if site data or other information provide a reasonable basis to do so. He stressed that any sampling must result from a plan with a solid scientific basis, but said the EPA would consider suggestions from the community regarding collection of samples.

For their part, committee members hope to convince agency officials to do the sampling in Castine to determine whether the mine is affecting the town and its residents.

“We want them to alleviate our fears,” said Gregory Dunham, “and if something is wrong, Castine needs to be included in the cleanup.”

The state defines a cancer cluster as a greater than expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time.

Determining that a cancer cluster exists is difficult for a number of reasons, according to Castine Verrill, a state epidemiologist who works with the Maine Cancer Registry.

“Cancer is not just one disease,” Verrill said. “There are between 100 and 200 different diseases, and each type has its own features and causes; the features related to breast cancer are not necessarily related to ovarian cancer.”

Also, it can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years for a cancer to develop. Causes of cancer include external factors such as tobacco, chemicals and radiation, as well as genetics. According to Verrill, 50 percent to 60 percent of all cancers are related to tobacco and diet.

“We respond to requests from communities on a routine basis,” she said. “Our job is to look into the concerns to see if there is a reason for another study. We haven’t done that step yet. We can’t say if there is a reasonable concern.”

An initial review of the statistics will be done by a team from the registry comprising Verrill, two other epidemiologists and an oncologist. They will look at the rate of various cancers in Castine and see whether that rate is higher than the state statistics. Only after that review, she said, will the team decide what the next step will be.

That meeting, which is not open to the public, is scheduled for Aug. 20 in Augusta.