Authorities confirm 12th leukemia case involving small Nevada town

Brendan Riley

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 4:24 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A 12th case of childhood leukemia involving the small Nevada town of Fallon was confirmed Friday by state health authorities.

A suspected 13th case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, turned out to be a Fallon-area boy suffering from aplastic anemia, a disease described by experts as unrelated to ALL although both involve bone marrow.

None of the victims has died, although ALL and aplastic anemia are life-threatening.

Luana Ritch of the state Health Division confirmed the latest case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, a 19-year-old man whose family moved from Fallon when he was a toddler. The man initially was diagnosed by his own doctors last year, but the state didn't learn about it until now.

Both of the latest cases were described last week as possibly being part of the Fallon-area's leukemia cluster. While one was quickly determined to be aplastic anemia, it took several days for the Health Division to confirm the leukemia diagnosis.

Ritch said the latest confirmed ALL case isn't more cause for alarm beyond the level that already exists in Fallon.

"It doesn't mean that whatever might have occurred (to trigger the disease), if something did occur, is still there," she said.

"It's possible, because his residence in Fallon was so long ago, that all this will do is add to our knowledge. There's really nothing that we can definitively say other than this is an associated case."

Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, had disclosed the latest cases in calling for an emergency $1 million appropriation to speed the search for a cause of the leukemia in the agricultural and Navy town she represents.

De Braga said part of the $1 million in emergency funding could be used for an information campaign, although most of money would be used for extensive testing of the victims and other efforts to pinpoint a cause of the strange leukemia cluster.

Federal agencies and Nevada's congressional delegation also are involved in the investigation.

The Assembly Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee, chaired by de Braga, is moving ahead with numerous recommendations, including a call for tests of hair, tissue and blood samples of the ALL victims, who range from toddlers to 19-year-olds. Six are males and six are females.

The victim suffering from aplastic anemia is a young boy who's the best friend of de Braga's grandson.

The committee also is recommending the investigation should consider factors such as high arsenic levels in Fallon-area water, agricultural pesticides, activity at the nearby Fallon Naval Air Station, and possible contamination from nuclear weapons testing in the area years ago.

Also proposed is a law change to upgrade water testing and to educate property owners about the need to test the quality of several thousand private wells in the area.

Another proposal urges the city of Fallon to "take whatever steps necessary" to meet new federal standards for arsenic as soon as possible. Current levels are 10 times or more those allowed under new standards.

Normally, the rate of ALL cases would be about three in every 100,000 people. With a dozen cases among about 25,000 people living in Churchill County, which encompasses Fallon, the rate in the area is about 16 times higher than normal.

ALL - the most common form of childhood leukemia - destroys bone marrow. While its cause is unknown, suspected triggers include radiation exposure, electromagnetic fields or volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, solvents and fossil fuels. Arsenic has not been linked to acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Aplastic anemia, according to Dr. Caroline Hastings, a pediatric oncologist from Oakland Children's Hospital who's on a team of experts looking at the Fallon cases, is much rarer than leukemia and can be inherited or caused by infections such as hepatitis B. Other causes such as environmental toxins also have been listed in literature on the bone marrow disease.

While there's no apparent link between aplastic anemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia, Hastings said both the diseases have to be kept in mind "as this whole thing unfolds."