Volunteers to join Fallon leukemia probe

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

Federal and state scientists this week will begin selecting families for biological and environmental tests in an attempt to determine what has caused a childhood leukemia cluster in Fallon.

Fourteen cases of childhood leukemia have been identified in the community during the past three years. All of the cases have no apparent common link except that they occurred in children who live or had lived in Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno.

Representatives from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will begin, on a random basis, calling families for their voluntary participation in a comprehensive health and environmental study, officials said on Friday.

CDC scientists will collect blood, urine and possibly skin cell samples from families who were been affected by childhood cancer. Families in Fallon who have not been affected by leukemia will be tested, as well. For the next month or more disease investigators will interview and test up to 200 volunteers.

Other investigators will sample air, soil and water in the family homes and other sites to be determined in Fallon.

For each family that volunteers to provide blood, urine or environmental samples such as water, soil and dust, four other families without a history of childhood cancer will be selected, state epidemiologist Randall Todd said.

The CDC has set up a medical wing in the Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, Todd said.

The scientific techniques for detecting such trace amounts of chemicals and toxins did not exist until recently, he said.

"This technology never existed two or three years ago, and it is the first time it has been used on a cancer cluster," Todd said.

Specimens will be packed in dry ice and sent to Atlanta for analysis, Todd said.

People with questions about the Fallon sampling program can call state Health Department spokesman John Flamm at (775) 684-4221 or toll-free at (888) 608-4623.