Sierra Vista - childhood leukemia rates double national rate

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http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/20924leukemiaprobe.html

Kolbe asks for cancer probe

Seeks CDC aid for Sierra Vista leukemia cases

By Carla McClain

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe today is requesting a full-fledged federal investigation

of the cluster of childhood leukemia cases in the small Southern Arizona

city of Sierra Vista.

With nine cases of leukemia, including one death, reported among Sierra

Vista children in the last six years, Kolbe said those numbers are

significant enough to trigger a federal study to determine if a cause or

causes can be found.

" What we are seeing in Sierra Vista is at least double the national rate of

leukemia in children, " the Arizona Republican congressman said Monday.

" So parents and families need to feel something is being done to find out if

there is a possible source of the problem. "

In a letter sent this morning to the director of the federal Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta, Kolbe called for

the CDC's " immediate attention. "

Asking the CDC to join state health officials in the investigation, Kolbe

stated in the letter to newly appointed CDC head Louise Gerberding:

" While I understand the causes of cancer clusters are hard, and in some

cases, impossible, to identify, the residents of southern Arizona deserve

the peace of mind that results from knowing that health officials have done

all they can to identify any cause that might harm our children. "

Alarm over the rising number of Sierra Vista leukemia cases surfaced a year

ago, when University of Arizona doctors began noticing an unusual number of

stricken children from that city of only 39,000.

After state health officials confirmed the rate was significantly high,

investigators analyzed data on Sierra Vista's drinking water, air quality,

soil content, vehicular emissions and aircraft activity at the next-door

U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca but found no environmental red flags to link to

the leukemia outbreak.

UA pediatric researcher Mark Witten, also probing the Sierra Vista

situation, has pointed to toxins in jet fuel vapors, also to high levels of

the heavy metal tungsten - confirmed by tree-ring analysis - as possible

leukemia suspects in the area.

But Witten has been hamstrung in efforts to prove these or any other

possible links by a lack of funds for study, as have state health

authorities.

" If there is anything we can do to encourage the CDC to work with us, we'll

do it, " said Dr. Flood, medical director of the Arizona Cancer

Registry, who has investigated past cancer clusters in Arizona.

But Flood cautioned that even with the far greater investigational resources

of the federal agency, finding a real answer to Sierra Vista's leukemia

problem would be " a very big challenge. "

" The problem we have with the Sierra Vista leukemia count is that the

numbers we have to work with are really very small, and that severely limits

the knowledge we could get out of a study, no matter how well it's done, " he

said.

The CDC has just concluded the kind of investigation Kolbe is calling for

here in the smaller Nevada town of Fallon - the site of a larger childhood

leukemia cluster, now claiming some 16 children, with three deaths, among a

population of only about 8,000.

After a year of study, using high-technology investigative methods and

tools, the CDC is scheduled to releases its Fallon findings in December.

With many similarities between the two desert military towns - both rural,

both subjected to jet fuel emissions, both known to have high environmental

levels of tungsten - the CDC finding should provide a valuable guide, even

valid clues, to a Sierra Vista probe, Kolbe said.

Whether the CDC will agree to study Sierra Vista is unknown at this point.

The CDC's Atlanta offices were closed by the time Kolbe released a copy of

his letter in Tucson Monday afternoon. The agency is not slated to receive

Kolbe's formal request until sometime today.

* Contact reporter Carla McClain at 806-7754 or at cmcclain@....