As crews break down the former American Cleaners property in Binghamton, down the street, Vincent Penna breaks down as he remembers when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer.

"I cried. I just felt why did this have to happen..." says Penna.

Penna grew up in a Walnut Street home.

Just doors down from the abandoned American Cleaners property.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation ordered the site to be demolished and cleaned up after an investigation in 2000.

The site is contaminated with per-chloro-ethylene and the chemical vapors.

"It didn't have to stay this long. It could have been addressed sooner," says Penna.

Penna wants to know if the contamination caused his cancer as well has his sister's breast cancer.

"Who knows? It certainly makes you wonder," says Penna's sister, Lucia Paciocco.

"Penna says 6 long time homeowners here on Walnut Street have been diagnosed with cancer. With everyone living on the same block as American Cleaners, Penna says its too much of a coincidence."

"That raises a red flag to me," says Penna.

For now, Penna says he'll fight the cancer.

And even though he can hear the demolition of the American Cleaners property in his house, he says he won't watch it.

"Let it be gone. I"ll never walk by there again," says Penna.

The DEC says tests done near the contaminated property showed no off-site impact.

The Broome County Health Department adds there was never an area wide evaluation on cancer cases.

If you have environmental health questions, call the health department at 778-3930.

While the building's coming down this week, complete clean-up of the site should be finished by mid-summer.