Federal scientists will have money to proceed with a monumental study of cancer rates among 28,000 IBM-Endicott employees that will advance science about illness and chemical exposure, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey said Thursday.

Hinchey, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he has secured funding necessary for the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health to begin the $3.2 million study in the next fiscal year, which begins in October.

It would be the first comprehensive government study of cancer rates among employees in the circuit board manufacturing industry, and is intended to address widespread questions about whether they bore a disproportionately high cancer risk.

"The funding has been secured. It is in the budget," said Hinchey, D-Hurley. "NIOSH has given us assurances they will begin the study next fiscal year." The funding was included in a clause in a bill passed by the House that would make the study a priority for NIOSH in 2008.

Meanwhile, IBM pledged to cooperate with the study.

"We will pass along any information (to NIOSH) that is lawfully acceptable," IBM spokesman Ari Fishkind said Thursday afternoon. "We have cooperated with NIOSH in the past and that will always be the case."

The study would be based largely on records dating to the early 1960s that document the IBM work force at the sprawling Endicott facility, now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates. They would be cross-referenced with cancer and death records kept by state and federal government agencies, so researchers will be able to tell if a person who worked for the company for a given period developed cancer any time after that.

The study also would tap IBM's industrial hygiene records to track what chemicals were used, where, and when in an attempt to characterize likely exposure scenarios for workers in various departments.

The study would be a significant contribution to worldwide occupational safety, including countries that use chemicals and processes being phased out of this country, said Richard Clapp, professor of environmental health at Boston University and a national authority on chemical exposure.

"It's an understudied industry," he said. "This is a big step forward."

Fred Blosser, a spokesman for NIOSH in Washington, on Thursday said the agency could not comment on funding for the agency until the budget is finalized. In the meantime, he added, agency officials would "watch with interest" the progress of the legislation containing the clause for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to proceed with the IBM study. NIOSH is a branch of the CDC.

"We appreciate the congressman's interest and we will follow the progress of the bill," Blosser said.

Lynne Pinkerton, a scientist with NIOSH, said in a proposal earlier this year that IBM was willing to contribute personnel records, but not eager to share industrial hygiene information. The agency has the authority to subpoena the records. If that becomes necessary, a legal battle could delay the study.

Hinchey has advocated tougher state and federal TCE regulations after the chemical was found wafting from polluted sites into buildings throughout the Southern Tier in 2003. To date, more than 500 properties have been affected in Endicott, Hillcrest, Binghamton, Vestal and Norwich.

A study in one of those areas, south and southwest of the former IBM plant on North Street, Endicott, showed residents had disproportionately high rates of testicular and kidney cancer, and heart defects.

The IBM study would pertain to exposure to many kinds of chemicals, including TCE.

About 40 people, including advocates, residents and state and local elected officials, applauded Hinchey as he walked into the village rotunda for the press conference Thursday afternoon, and again when it was over.

Rick White, a spokesman for Alliance@IBM, a labor advocacy group, said Thursday he has growing confidence IBM will cooperate with the study.

"Their image is at stake," he said. "And I think they want to do the right thing and be a good corporate citizen."