Report: More cancer in town with tainted water

A new report says cancer rates are higher than average in a Chicago suburb where officials are accused of knowingly drawing drinking water from a tainted well.

The Illinois Department of Public Health examined cancer cases in Crestwood between 1994 and 2006 following a Chicago Tribune report on how residents unwittingly drank that water for decades.

The department's report found higher-than-expected cases of several cancers in the village of 11,000. The report, for instance, found 23 kidney cancers in men when statistically there should have been 12.

Researchers say it's possible the contaminated water caused the additional cancers, but they stop short of making a definite link. Still, toxicologist Ken Runkle says Crestwood's water issues put the figures in a different light.