Since NBC San Diego first aired an investigative story about a possible cancer connection in Carlsbad this month, a lot of people have been contacting John Quartarone.
"There's been a lot of response in email and also word of mouth,” said Quartarone.
John and his wife Stacey were featured in the story "Cancer Connection" because their son Chase, 16, died of Lymphoma in December 2009.
Chase was one of four students at Carlsbad High School who was diagnosed with cancer within the past three years.
A child who lived in the Quartarone's Carlsbad home before they moved in also had Lymphoma, but he survived.
The Quartarones and other families have been suspicious about what they believe is an unusually high number of cancer cases in their neighborhood which is located near Tamarack Avenue and Interstate-5.
Before Chase died, John promised his son he would try to find out if there is a cancer connection. "Is it in the air, is it in the water, is it the soil?"
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For the past three weeks, John has been counting the number of Carlsbad residents who have been affected by cancer within the last ten years.
So far, he said he has found more than 160 cancer victims who live or lived within a three-mile radius of his home.
With help from a few friends, John has now launched a new website to help document all cancer cases within city limits and surrounding communities.
The website has a form that people can fill out with general information about anyone they know who has or had cancer.
"What kind of cancer, where they lived and what type of treatment they got,” said website designer Ryan Cossey.
John will give the information he collects to state health investigators.
Those investigators have said that past studies have shown there aren’t an unusual number of cancer cases in Carlsbad. John and other residents don't agree with those findings. They hope the new website will prove it.
"Let's find out once and for all, if there is a problem in Carlsbad," Quartarone said.
