[CPEO-MEF] Debate over Fallon survey

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[A reminder: Fallon, Nevada is the site of a documented childhood
leukemia cluster. Several environmental theories have been advanced to
explain the cluster, but none have been proven. Some of those theories
involve contamination from the "Top Gun" Fallon Naval Air Station. - LS]

State, Health Activists at Odds over Cancer Survey

Frank X. Mullen Jr.

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
1/4/2003 08:30 pm 

The Fallon area has unexpectedly high rates of brain cancer, lymphomas,
and adult leukemia, in addition to its childhood leukemia cluster,
according to the organizer of a cancer incidence survey whose results
were released last week.

Former Fallon resident Floyd Sands, whose daughter died of leukemia,
said the survey showed alarming levels of cancer, even though it reached
only about 3,000 people in a county of 26,000.

“Do the math,” he said. “There's a problem with rare cancers that jumps
out at you.”

But Nevada health officials said the survey does not warrant further
investigation by the state.

They contend the survey resulted in a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other
words, Sands was soliciting rare cancers — and he found them.

...

for the entire story, see
http://www.rgj.com//news/stories/html/2003/01/04/31312.php

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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