ENDICOTT -- Federal health officials are proposing a $3.1 million study delving into IBM personnel records to determine the cancer rate among 28,000 employees who might have been exposed to chemicals at the Endicott plant since the 1960s.

Lynne Pinkterton, an official with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said the agency could combine information from personnel and industrial hygiene records kept for decades at the plant to determine cancer rates of people working in manufacturing and in various departments.

The information would address a long-standing question about whether IBM workers who faced exposure to chemicals, including trichloroethylene (TCE), were more likely than other people to become ill.

The interest in chemical exposure became more intense in the Southern Tier after the 2003 discovery that a subterranean plume of trichloroethylene and similar chemicals was flowing from the micro electronics plant on North Street and forming gases that pushed into hundreds of basements through a process called vapor intrusion. IBM sold the plant to Huron Real Estate Associates in 2002.

TCE exposure is linked to illnesses ranging from cancer to brain damage, but there is little consensus among scientists and policy makers about risks from low levels over long periods.

In August 2005, officials found that a polluted area in the village had a disproportionately high rate of birth defects and certain cancers, including kidney and testicular cancer. An updated assessment released Tuesday found other factors, such as smoking, could not explain the spike in illnesses, and TCE remained a suspect. The report was compiled by scientists from the state Department of Health and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Pinkerton and nine other officials from the health agencies briefed federal, state and local elected officials Tuesday afternoon, before presenting the IBM study proposal to residents gathered at the First United Methodist Church.

Residents have often pointed out that many village residents were exposed to the chemicals at home and then again when they went to work at nearby IBM.

"The employees of IBM are at the core of this community," said Alan Turnbull, a longtime village resident and executive director of RAGE, a citizens group working with health officials and lawyers to address issues about pollution. "They have been in the kettle the longest."

IBM has supplied NIOSH with personnel records that would tell researchers who worked at the plant, in what buildings and for how long. Information is also available from air testing in the buildings over the decades that would give scientists a reasonable idea of concentrations and types of chemicals workers would have been exposed to in certain spots at certain times, Pinkerton said.

The agency would then cross-reference that data with information from the state cancer registry to determine who got sick.

IBM has resisted giving all the necessary information to the agency without a guarantee that it would be kept private, Pinkerton said. The public nature of the study would make that difficult. If necessary, she added, NIOSH has the legal authority to subpoena the records.

"We prefer to work with IBM," she said.

Ari Fishkind, a spokesman for IBM, could not be reached Tuesday evening. He said last week that IBM was cooperating with the investigation.

Funding is a barrier to the study, Pinkerton said, but not insurmountable. Much of the incentive to do the study will depend on the reaction from the community, she said.

"We want your feedback on whether it is worth it to move forward," she told about 40 residents, advocates and current and former IBM workers standing or sitting on folding chairs in the basement of the church.

She received immediate support.

"It seems like a no-brainer to do a study on the people who worked there, day in and day out, right in the lion's den," said Dave Leonard, a Town of Maine resident and 33-year IBM employee.

Officials will receive comments on the report until May 28. They have scheduled an informational session open to the public on April 17.