Bill seeks tracking of disease outbreaks

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http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Mar-22-Fri-2002/news/18363905.html

Friday, March 22, 2002

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Bill seeks tracking of disease outbreaks

Reid, Clinton introduce legislation to probe whether clusters, environmental

hazards linked

By CHRISTINE DORSEY

STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.,

introduced legislation Thursday to track whether clusters of cancer,

diabetes and other chronic diseases may be linked to community environmental

hazards.

The action came after the senators convened hearings in New York, Nevada and

Washington in the past year to investigate federal efforts to track the

outbreaks.

The measure establishes a nationwide network of federal, state and local

health officials to compile information on chronic illnesses, environmental

exposures and other risk factors to find out where and why the outbreaks

occur.

The Centers for Disease Control tracks infectious diseases such as AIDS, but

not others on a systematic basis.

At a news conference, Reid used the leukemia cluster in Fallon to explain

the legislation.

" They had to reinvent the wheel, " Reid said of state and federal health

officials investigating Fallon. " They are overwhelmed with work. "

Reid said without access to up-to-date water, air and land contamination

data, officials may never figure out why 15 children from Fallon have been

diagnosed with similar forms of leukemia since the summer of 2000. Two of

those children have died.

Scientists and health officials still don't know what caused Fallon's

leukemia cluster, but Reid suggested it could be related to high levels of

arsenic in local drinking water or jet fuel contamination from nearby Fallon

Naval Air Station.

Clinton, concerned about the higher-than-average number of breast cancer

cases in a Long Island community, said immediate action is needed to prevent

more unnecessary sickness.

" Once we are able to track these diseases and detect links to environmental

or other causes, we will be able to attack the problem and ultimately

prevent public health problems before they occur, " Clinton said.

The bill would authorize federal health agencies to spend $140 million

annually in 2003 and 2004, and $240 million per year after 2005, to improve

data collection and analysis with networked computer systems and more staff

to handle the work.

It also would fund five new regional " Health Centers of Excellence " and at

least five regional " biomonitoring labs " to track health and environment

data. An annual report would publicize the findings.

In addition to the new labs, money would be used to create a national

environmental health rapid response service to coordinate federal, state and

local responses to disease outbreaks.

Last year, Reid added $17.5 million to a health spending bill to set up the

health tracking program in anticipation of the legislation authorizing the

system.