ENDICOTT — A plan to conduct a comprehensive study to determine cancer rates among 28,000 IBM Endicott workers has become a priority for federal researchers after federal lawmakers built it into the legislative process, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey said.

Hinchey, D-Hurley, was scheduled to make the announcement publicly at a 1:30 p.m. press conference at the village offices.

"Now that we have the funds in place for NIOSH to conduct its study of cancer rates among IBM employees who were exposed to TCE (trichloroethylene), we will be able to better determine the impact the chemical has had on public health, particularly as it relates to cancer rates," Hinchey said.

Hinchey, a member of the appropriations committee, authored language that would make “all but 100 percent certain” that the federal government will fund the $3.1 million plan using money allocated to the 2008 budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dan Lamb, a spokesman for Hinchey. The CDC includes the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health. That’s the agency that proposed the study to address a persistent community concern regarding the health of IBM employees in a plant that used TCE and other dangerous chemicals in its manufacturing process.

Many of those chemicals have contaminated residential and commercial properties to the south of the plant — now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates — which are also the subject of federal and state health studies.

"The IBM workforce provides us with an extraordinary sample study of men and women who were unfortunately exposed to TCE and now we have a federal agency primed to investigate just how these workers were affected,” Hinchey said. He cited many “tragic” stories related by IBM workers and their families who suffered from various forms of cancer.

“Now we can combine those stories with pure data from IBM to determine hard facts and figures about what kind of impact this chemical has really had on our community,” he said.

Fred Blosser, a spokesman for NIOSH, said late this morning he was checking with agency officials to confirm details about funding the worker study and what the next step would be.