State officials, including the SUNY New Paltz administration, continue to reassure students, parents and the student newspaper that the dormitories are safe. In 2000, the EPA official handling the dioxin reassessment, Dr. William Farland, said the agency was wrong about the older cancer numbers caused by the existing body burden of dioxin. But by 1999, Jennifer had already been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, which her doctors say can be caused by a genetic defect combined with a toxic exposure. It's impossible to say for sure, but living there did not help her. You can't blame us.
People get cancer anyway.
True indeed, and as it turns out, nobody is studying the health of students in the four poisoned dormitories, or on the campus in general, to see who else has cancer or other illnesses. After all, the buildings are safe. What I have seen, over the years, a lot of things that I don't understand about how people got sick and reacted to chemical exposure. Based on the science, we would not have predicted any response. So there are other issues going on in these chemical exposures that scientists just don't understand.