Leukemia cases are certain

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2001 | 10:33 a.m.

Two suspected cases of childhood leukemia in Fallon have been confirmed, Nevada health officials said Tuesday, bringing to 11 the number of children stricken with the cancer in the past three years.

The latest cases confirmed in the rural town 60 miles east of Reno were a 2-year-old and a 19-year-old.

State epidemiologist Randall Todd said on Tuesday that all of the cases are acute lyphocytic leukemia, the most common form of the disease, which destroys bone marrow.

The two latest cases were confirmed after extensive interviews with the families and examination of medical documentation, Todd said.

In all of the cases, the children were under 19 years old when diagnosed and lived in Fallon between at some time 1996 and 1999, Todd said. Health officials have found no other links.

A normal rate of such leukemia is three cases for every 100,000 people in five years, Todd said. About 25,000 people, including 8,000 children, live in Churchill County.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to meet behind closed doors Thursday with state and local officials at the Fallon Convention Center.

Guinn confirmed that a panel of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers from the University of Minnesota, University of California, Berkeley, and San Diego State University will review and guide the probe into the disease.

Health officials said Fallon residents have not panicked as the leukemia cases have grown.

Speculation about potential causes has included arsenic in the drinking water, which occurs naturally in Fallon; agricultural chemicals; jet fuel dumping by planes at the Fallon Naval Air Station; and such common household products as nail polish remover and moth balls.

Since 1990 the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has been investigating potential threats to human health or the environment at the air station, which has operated since 1955.

In September 1994 six sites were identified as contaminated with gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, trichloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloro-ethene and minor amounts of the pesticide pentachlorophenol.

Although the Navy told the state in 1998 that no further action was required to clean up the contamination, discussions toward a resolution are ongoing, state officials said.

Todd said that nothing has been ruled out as a cause and that further drinking water tests and ground water samples may be collected.