By
The Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - State and federal health officials are investigating at least 10 and possibly 11 cases of childhood leukemia linked to Fallon, a farming and Navy town 60 miles east of here. The cancer rate is about 40 times greater than normal.
State health officials plan to conduct interviews with the family of a 21/2-year-old Fallon child who was reported to be the 11th victim. State health officer Mary Guinan said that case has not been confirmed.
The 10th case was reported last week, involving a child diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, several years after the child's family moved from Fallon to Pennsylvania. The family contacted Fallon's hospital and a local newspaper after reading a report on the health investigation.
The state Health Division last year began investigating several cases of ALL, the most common childhood form of the blood cancer, in children who had lived or whose parents had lived in Fallon for varying lengths of time. A computer analysis found only one link among the first seven cancer cases: each child lived in Fallon for some period between 1996 and 1999.
Normally, the rate of such cases would be about 3 in every 100,000 people. About 8,300 people live in Fallon, so its cancer rate would be about 120 per 100,000 people.
Health officials and Fallon residents have speculated about a wide range of potential causes, including agricultural chemicals, jet fuel dumping by planes at the nearby Fallon Naval Air Station and the high levels of arsenic in area groundwater. The city of Fallon is complying with an Environmental Protection Agency order to filter arsenic from its municipal supplies.
Some scientific studies have suggested links between arsenic and leukemia, but Health Division officials have said it's unlikely that Fallon's long-standing arsenic problem caused the sudden spike in the childhood illness.
State officials are in contact with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and outside experts could arrive in Nevada to assist with the investigation as early as next month.
Jack Finn, Gov. Kenny Guinn's press secretary, said Guinn learned of the latest apparent case on Wednesday and has been getting regular briefings on earlier cases. Guinn plans a Feb. 25 fact-finding tour to Fallon.
''The governor wants to make sure this investigation remains, as it has been, the Health Division's No. 1 priority,'' Finn added. ''With every new case, our concern grows.''
''We were alarmed when there were four in less than three months,'' said Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, who plans legislative hearings next month on the leukemia cases. ''Here we are at 11.''
