Do you think the old Bayshore High got you sick? The state wants to hear from you

Friday marks the deadline to join the more than 200 people who already have taken part in a health survey focused on current and former Bayshore High School students and employees who fell victim to cancer.

Concerned alumni have pushed for more than a decade to find out whether their cancer diagnoses or other health complications are linked to the school. Despite assurances from health officials, some alumni are convinced that an unknown contaminant plagued the building and those who walked its halls.

“While we have no evidence that Bayshore High School is the source of any disease clusters, we also understand the strong concerns in the community,” the Manatee County Health Department stated on its website.

Forms can be submitted in-person or by mail to the Division of Disease Control and Health Protection. The agency’s address 410 Sixth Ave. East, Bradenton 34208.

Photo identification is required with each submission, unless the form is notarized. The agency will stop taking submissions after 5 p.m. on Friday, said Tom Iovino, a spokesman for the county health department.

Officials said the state Department of Health will analyze the submissions and then report its findings in about six months.

The investigation follows a history of concerns that first went public in 2007, when more than 100 former students and employees attended a town hall led by then-State Rep. Bill Galvano. The Department of Environmental Protection later said it found no dangerous chemicals in samples of soil or groundwater after hiring a company to test the area where two underground storage tanks were previously removed.

Bayshore alumnus Cheryl Jozsa spearheaded the effort to find answers after her sister died of leukemia in 1999. She now operates a Facebook page called “Bayshore High School, Bradenton, FL Concerned Alumni and Friends.”

As of November, Jozsa said she documented about 480 cases of alumni who lived with cancer, died from cancer, struggled with an autoimmune disease or gave birth to a child with health complications.

The page links to a survey where people can log a host of health concerns, while the health department is focusing only on cancer cases.

On March 2, Jozsa raised fresh concerns at a Manatee County Commission meeting.

She and other alumni are worried about contamination from a nearby facility called Riverside Products. Between 1963 to 1994, the company manufactured steel, brass and aluminum.

The EPA found some contamination in the area surrounding the facility, located about a mile north of the high school, but the findings posed “minimal concern,” according to the agency’s assessment in 1997.

Still, the recent outcry was enough to prompt an investigation. The county health department held a joint meeting with the School Board of Manatee County and the Manatee County Board of Commissioners in May, and the health survey started in December.

Affected students and employees can find the form and a list of frequently asked questions at https://bit.ly/2GgSxqm.

This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Do you think the old Bayshore High got you sick? The state wants to hear from you."