Mount Sinai researcher Maaike van Gerwen turned her attention to cancer rates on Staten Island. She studies thyroid cancer and environmental exposures, and released a report on Fresh Kills Landfill. The report looks at whether Staten Island’s elevated cancer rates may be linked to exposures from the former dump. Van Gerwen said screening may be part of the answer, but not everything. The borough’s thyroid cancer incidence rate was 29.4 cases per 100,000 population from 2019 through 2023. Researchers also found age-adjusted rates increased 2.7 percent per year from 2000 to 2010.
