Fallon probe not confined to radiation find

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

The discovery of radiation in Fallon's ground water has not narrowed the scope of the investigation nor has it affected experts' resolve to pursue every possible environmental angle as they try to determine why a dozen area children have been stricken with leukemia, officials said.

Federal investigators and Nevada health and environmental officials started the painstaking work of examining blood, tissue, air, soil and water samples for clues regarding 12 cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia discovered in Fallon children during the past three years. It is the most common form of the cancer.

Nine of 10 of these investigations never pinpoint a cause, experts said.

The investigation continues, nevertheless.

A 1994 U.S. Geological Survey report became "the find of the week," state epidemiologist Randall Todd said Thursday. The report showed radiation levels from naturally occurring uranium in 31 Fallon wells were higher than the proposed national limit.

A federal toxicologist said it is unlikely that drinking radioactive water from those wells caused the cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on uranium in drinking water because the heavy metal can lead to kidney damage, toxicologist Bruce Macler of EPA's office in San Francisco said. The threat of radiation causing cancer is negligible. "That's not where to look for the cause of the leukemias," he said.

Todd agreed. "If it is a naturally occurring substance, even if it is too high, one has to ask the question, 'Since it has been there for a very long time -- why didn't we see cases earlier?' " he said.

The USGS data can be useful when compared to private well test results, Todd said.

Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta visited affected families Tuesday. CDC officials plan to be ready to collect blook and tissue samples this summer.

Separate plans will be written for industrial and agricultural sources so scientists can track the paths of chemicals much like detectives hunt for clues at a crime scene.

Other avenues scientists will pursue in coming months include:

* Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, such as solvents, fuels and benzene have a possible link to childhood leukemia. VOCs are common. Jet fuel used at Fallon Naval Station, pesticides sprayed on cantaloupes and other crops and even benzene in mothballs are under investigation.

* A virus or a bacteria that has since disappeared from the community could have triggered the leukemia outbreak. An influx of new residents or runoff from a flood could have deposited the organism in the community.

* Scientists could find an unexpected trigger for the leukemia outbreak.

The EPA's laboratory has an $800,000 piece of equipment that could narrow the search for a chemical in water, lab director Christian Daughton said. A dozen research chemists are ready should state officials call, he said.

EPA chemist Andy Grange developed a means of narrowing suspect chemicals -- he uses a high-resolution mass spectrometer, one of five in the United States, Daughton said.

"It would complement other work," he said.

The lab recently identified toxic chemicals in well water from Toms River, N.J., where cancers affecting children's nervous systems cancers have been on the rise.