Jill U. Adams
The Los Angeles Times

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered state health and environmental agencies to continue to investigate a rash of birth defects that occurred in the small San Joaquin Valley town of Kettleman City.

Five of 20 babies born in Kettleman City over a 14-month period had cleft lips or cleft palates, an unusually high rate compared with what’s considered normal. Worldwide, cleft deformities occur in about 1 in every 700 live births, according to a November study in the journal the Lancet.

Residents suspect a nearby toxic waste dump is to blame, although it’s only one of many potential causes.

Smoking, nutrient-poor diets and use of certain medicines by pregnant women have been linked to cleft deformities, as have environmental exposures such as pesticides, organic solvents used in industry and infectious diseases.

A high rate of disease within a specific locale, as is the case in Kettleman City, is called a cluster. Here’s a look at what’s known about disease clusters and how scientists go about determining cause and effect.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a cluster as “an unusual aggregation, real or perceived, of health events that are grouped together in time and space and that is reported to a public health department.”

Sometimes clusters happen just by chance. Disease rates, after all, are averages, but the cases aren’t distributed perfectly evenly: Within a large population there will be subgroups with higher and lower rates. “It’s like flipping a coin,” says Daniel Wartenberg, an epidemiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J. Getting five heads in a row doesn’t mean the coin isn’t fair — and in the same way, a local cluster of some disease does not automatically mean there is an environmental cause.

Certain kinds of clusters are more easily pinned to a cause than others. Examples are clusters that involve infectious disease — such as outbreaks of illness from food contamination or the 1976 outbreak of pneumonia at an American Legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel, an infection now known as Legionnaires’ disease.

In addition, diseases resulting from workplace exposures or from adverse drug effects are often solved because it’s easier to figure out what everyone in the cluster had in common.

There are also some rare instances in which scientists can link an environmental factor in a community to a very specific disease.

For example, a 2002 study published in Toxicology Letters linked a cluster of lung cancer cases in Turkey to asbestos-containing rocks in the area, with which people built their homes.

A 1997 study, published in the journal Environmental Research, found a similar cause for a lung cancer cluster in Manville, N.J., home to the largest asbestos manufacturing plant in the U.S. People who lived in town (but had never worked at the plant) had 10 times the rate of lung cancer as residents living outside the town. Key to unraveling the mystery was the fact that the type of lung cancer involved was mesothelioma, which is a very specific and known outcome of asbestos exposure, says Dr. Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Cluster investigations work well when you have a cause and an effect within a very short period of time, Ritz says. But more often, they are fraught with uncertainty. They’re extremely difficult with diseases that take years to develop or when many different factors can contribute to a disease. For cancers other than mesothelioma, “it’s almost hopeless,” Ritz says.

Birth defects are similarly difficult because there are so many things that might cause them.

No one disputes that the rate of birth defects in Kettleman City is higher than usual. Many doubt that they will find the cause, though.

“By the time [babies] are born, the toxin may have left the mom and never be shown,” Ritz says. “And in areas where clusters happen, there’s usually more than one thing happening: a toxic waste site, constant pesticide spraying.”

And, says Wartenberg, “we know some of the things that cause clefts, but we don’t know that much.”

Moreover, he adds, “even when the numbers are improbable, that doesn’t mean they’re impossible by chance.”

A preliminary investigation by the California Department of Public Health compared rates of birth defects in Kettleman City with those in neighboring towns for the years 1987 to 2008 and found no evidence of a common cause. The investigation will continue, says Dr. Rick Kreutzer, chief of environmental and occupational disease control at the state agency.

health@latimes.com
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School Principal Leon Muhammad shows NDCA science advisor Zoe Kelman the superfund site next to the playground.

NDCA representatives visited the Bayview neighborhood in South San Francisco last week, receiving a tour of the area affected by the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard superfund site. The community has several specific requests:

1. The Navy should clean up the remaining contaminated sites, and not just cap them.

This is especially important given the risk that an earthquake will cause the harbor fill under the superfund site to dissolve in a process known as liquefaction Unsteady Ground: Lennar, liquefaction and other related meltdownsSF Bay Guardian, 12/31/2008.

2. Construction should be stopped until it is shown that the clean-up will be conducted in a manner that ensures the safety of the schoolchildren and nearby residents.

3. Health testing and bio-monitoring should be conducted to assess if the children and residents have already suffered health impacts from this site.

4. Homes and schools should be tested for contamination associated with the superfund site.

5. Long term health monitoring should be provided to the community because some associated health effects can have long latency periods before the onset of disease.

Other Resources

ARC Ecology’s “Community Window on the Hunters Point Shipyard” with multiple maps, descriptions of contaminants found on various parcels, and links to clean-up documents.

EPA page on Hunter’s Point

Greenaction’s page on Hunters Point

Beyond Toxic: Pollution in Bayview Hunters Point photo journal page.

Too many electromagnetic fields surrounding us–from cell phones, wifi, and commonplace modern technology–may be seriously harming our health. Here’s how to minimize your exposure.

By Michael Segell
Prevention Magazine

The California Cluster

IN 1990, the city of La Quinta, CA, proudly opened the doors of its sparkling new middle school. Gayle Cohen, then a sixth-grade teacher, recalls the sense of excitement everyone felt: “We had been in temporary facilities for 2 years, and the change was exhilarating.” But the glow soon dimmed. One teacher developed vague symptoms– weakness, dizziness–and didn’t return after the Christmas break. A couple of years later, another developed cancer and died; the teacher who took over his classroom was later diagnosed with throat cancer. More instructors continued to fall ill, and then, in 2003, on her 50th birthday, Cohen received her own bad news: breast cancer. “That’s when I sat down with another teacher, and we remarked on all the cancers we’d seen,” she says. “We immediately thought of a dozen colleagues who had either gotten sick or passed away.” By 2005, 16 staffers among the 137 who’d worked at the new school had been diagnosed with 18 cancers, a ratio nearly 3 times the expected number. Nor were the children spared: About a dozen cancers have been detected so far among former students. A couple of them have died.

Prior to undergoing her first chemotherapy treatment, Cohen approached the school principal, who eventually went to district officials for an investigation. A local newspaper article about the possible disease cluster caught the attention of Sam Milham, MD, a widely traveled epidemiologist who has investigated hundreds of environmental and occupational illnesses and published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on his findings. For the past 30 years, he has trained much of his focus on the potential hazards of electromagnetic fields (EMFs)–the radiation that surrounds all electrical appliances and devices, power lines, and home wiring and is emitted by communications devices, including cell phones and radio, TV, and WiFi transmitters. His work has led him, along with an increasingly alarmed army of international scientists, to a controversial conclusion: The “electrosmog” that first began developing with the rollout of the electrical grid a century ago and now envelops every inhabitant of Earth is responsible for many of the diseases that impair–or kill–us.

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Some residents of the impoverished town wonder if a nearby
hazardous waste facility is to blame.

By Louis Sahagun

December 8, 2009

Reporting from Kettleman City, Calif.

When environmental activists began a survey of birth defects in this small migrant farming town halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the results were alarming.

Approximately 20 babies were born here during the 14 months beginning in September 2007. Three of them died; each had been born with oral deformities known as clefts. Two others born with the defect during that period are undergoing medical treatment.

The 1,500 primarily Spanish-speaking residents of this impoverished enclave just off Interstate 5 want to know what is causing these health problems. Some blame them on a nearby hazardous waste facility — the largest landfill of its kind west of Louisiana and the only one in California licensed to accept carcinogenic PCBs.

Residents and environmental activists want the Kings County Board of Supervisors to stop a proposed expansion of the 1,600-acre landfill until the issue can be investigated by state and federal regulatory agencies. Even Chemical Waste Management Inc., which owns the site, has also expressed concerns about the county’s reluctance to call for an outside investigation.

County health officials say it is extremely difficult to quantify the relationship between pollution and birth defects.

“I understand why people are concerned,” Kings County health officer Michael MacClean said in an interview. “But most of the time, when we are talking about small numbers such as these, they are just random occurrences.

“We will definitely continue to monitor the situation to see if over time the apparent excess of cleft palates continues,” he said. “If so, I would at that point ask for the state to come in and investigate.”

On Monday, dozens of Kettleman City residents and hundreds of landfill employees and supporters traveled to Hanford Civic Auditorium, some 40 miles away, to hear the Board of Supervisors consider an appeal of the county planning commission’s recent unanimous approval of the expansion.

Supervisors heard from several witnesses into the evening. A final decision on whether to approve the expansion is expected Dec. 22.

read full article online

By Barbara Anderson / The Fresno Bee

KETTLEMAN CITY — Five babies with cleft palates or other grave disabilities were born over a 15-month span in this small farming community off Interstate 5. Three died.

Many parents worry that poisons in the air, water and land are to blame. Their town of 1,500 is wedged in among agricultural fields, two highways and a hazardous-waste landfill.

Environmental-justice groups, who oppose a proposed expansion of the landfill, call it a “birth-defect cluster” — a surge in birth defects unlikely to occur by chance. They want an investigation.

But experts say parents may never know what hurt their babies. Apparent spikes in birth defects or cancer cases are notoriously difficult to verify, especially in small communities — and linking them to a specific cause is even harder.

Kings County health officials point out that different types of birth defects are involved, so it’s not yet clear whether the birth-defect rate was high enough to qualify as a cluster. But at least four of the babies had cleft palates.

Nationally, very few reports of elevated birth-defect rates are statistically out of line enough to be identified as clusters, experts say.

Even such instances do qualify as a cluster, an investigation likely would find no clear underlying cause: Birth-defect clusters sometimes happen randomly, they say. And many factors — genetics, nutrition, infections, the environment — can contribute to an increase. Untangling one factor from another to find a cause can be nearly impossible, they say.

The debate in Kettleman City has taken on fresh urgency as a hearing approaches on whether to allow an expansion of the Waste Management landfill three miles southwest of town.

On Dec. 7, the Kings County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the company’s expansion request. The hearing is a result of an appeal by environmental groups after the county Planning Commission approved the expansion in October. Parents and environmental activists say the plans should be stopped until the birth defects have been investigated.

But investigations of possible clusters often take months, even years, said Lisa Croen, an epidemiologist who helped probe birth defects during 14 years at the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program.
“I know it’s very frustrating for families who have concerns, but that’s the challenge to scientists,” said Croen, who now is in charge of autism studies at Kaiser Permanente’s division of research in Oakland.

The landfill question
For about two decades, families in Kettleman City have voiced concerns about the nearby hazardous-waste landfill. It handles things like paints, batteries, solvents and pesticides, among other hazardous materials.
Now, they wonder whether there’s a connection between the landfill and the birth defects.

“I don’t say it’s the plant itself, but what else could it be?” Magdalena Romero said in Spanish through an interpreter. Romero’s daughter, America Romero, was born in September 2007 with a cleft palate and other problems from trisomy 13, a chromosome disorder. She died after 41/2 months.

Ivan Rodriguez, 28, said he and his wife, Daria Hernandez, both speaking through an interpreter, took walks in the hills near their home while she was pregnant with their son, Ivan Yhoel. “Once in a while, there would be some bad odors,” Rodriguez said.

Their baby was born with a cleft palate. Now he’s 1, but he can’t eat solid food and must drink formula through a special bottle. Hernandez, 23, said her doctor asked whether she used drugs or worked around pesticides that could have caused the birth defect. She had not, she said.

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The fortunes of the Chevron oil refinery fortunes and the city of Richmond have diverged in recent years, creating friction.

By MALIA WOLLAN
Published: October 31, 2009
Competing tours offer two very distinct ways to see the industrial city of Richmond in the East Bay.

This article is part of our expanded Bay Area coverage.
The Bay Area Blog features coverage of public affairs, commerce, culture and lifestyles in the region. We invite your comments at bayarea@nytimes.com.

The New York Times
Chevron is Richmond’s biggest employer and taxpayer.

A “Toxic Tour,” led by an environmental justice group, circles Chevron’s Richmond Refinery and passes through what the group’s local members call the city’s “petrochemical corridor.” On Chevron’s newly offered refinery tours, visitors don hard hats and safety glasses and hear of strict emission standards, exemplary safety records and jobs, jobs, jobs.

Chevron is the city’s biggest employer and taxpayer, but in recent years its fortunes and the city’s have diverged. The slowing economy trounced Richmond, while the oil price spike helped Chevron turn record profits.

The city and the corporation exist on entirely different scales — Richmond, with a population of 102,120 people, is lost among its larger neighbors, Oakland and San Francisco; Chevron is a global corporation with 62,000 employees operating in more than 100 countries.

That prosperity gap helped galvanize segments of the population against the company that has dominated the physical, economic and psychic landscape here for more than 100 years.

Gayle McLaughlin, rode the anger into City Hall in 2006. Ms. McLaughlin, the city’s first Green mayor, is now Chevron’s avowed antagonist. As Chevron’s profits climbed, it provided more fodder for her attacks.

Until recently, Chevron had been doing well. The second-largest oil company in the United States, it earned $23.9 billion last year, topping off five consecutive years of record profits. Though Friday’s third quarter earnings report showed profits down 51 percent, Ms. McLaughlin still brandishes Chevron’s financial statements like weapons.

They contrast starkly with the poverty in this city, which has an unemployment rate of 18 percent and the third-highest crime rate per capita in the state.

“It always seems really obscene to me that we have such growing profits experienced by this large oil company while people here are struggling to pay for food and rent for their families,” the mayor said in an interview .

A series of lawsuits and a key ballot measure passed since Ms. McLaughlin’s victory show a city torn between the generally liberal, anticorporate politics of the Bay Area and its own history as a loyal company town. Environmental groups have so far been able to block a retrofit of the Chevron refinery while the city has tried to raise the company’s taxes. Chevron, which says the changes to the refinery will reduce pollution, has appealed the ruling.

The taxes paid by the Richmond refinery account for 33 percent to 50 percent of the city’s $144 million general budget this year. The refinery employs some 1,300 people, making it unclear what the city would do without Chevron.

But between the low profit margins for refineries across the country and the new taxes levied on the refinery, company leaders say they are considering doing without Richmond. While residents might not want anything that drastic, they do seem to want the corporation to do more for the city. Last fall, they passed a ballot initiative, Measure T, whose backers adopted the slogan “A Fair Share for Richmond.”

The measure charged businesses an additional tax of a quarter-percent of the value of the raw materials used in manufacturing. For Chevron, that additional tax was $21 million this year. In February the company filed suit in Contra Costa County Superior Court arguing that the measure violated state and federal law.

The suit remains unresolved, but Chevron paid the additional $21 million in April. The city kept the money, though it refrained from spending it after the judge in the case warned not to. In February the company also agreed to pay the city $28 million as part of a legal settlement after a city audit concluded that the refinery had underpaid utility taxes.

Then, in July, another county judge halted Chevron’s effort to retrofit the refinery, saying the company’s environmental review was unclear on a crucial issue: whether the upgrade was designed to process a heavier grade of crude oil.

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 Advocates Call for Swift Action in Response to Community
Concerns of Disease Clusters

         October 30, 2008 – San Diego, California – Former U.S. Surgeon
General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders joined activists last night in kicking off
a campaign geared toward raising awareness and more effective response
to disease clusters in the country. Matt Wilhelm of the San Diego
Chargers and his wife, Vanessa as well as Steve Altman, President of
Qualcomm and his wife Lisa joined and aided the organization to raise
more than $25,000 towards this vital and emerging cause.

         A “disease cluster” is an unexpectedly large number of cases of
the same or similar diseases in a geographic area over a defined period
of time. The environment plays an important role in human development
and health. All populations are not created equal when it comes to
their ability to withstand environmental insults without serious health
consequences. It is well documented that exposure to toxic chemicals
can have a devastating impact on the fetus or on infants during
developmental “windows of vulnerability” when cells are dividing
rapidly.

         The campaign, “No Disease Clusters Anymore,” was spearheaded by
the nonprofit organization, the National Disease Clusters Alliance.

         Other speakers included Trevor Smith, a youth advocate for NDCA
and brain cancer survivor; and Dee Lewis, Executive Director of NDCA who
led the battle to uncover the environmental causes of the disease
cluster in the Calvine-Florin community in Sacramento.

         According to Lewis, “government resources, capacity, protocols,
and methodology have all been found inadequate for assisting
communities that are confronting a known or suspected
environmentally-related disease cluster.”

         Every year, residents request investigations into more than
1,000 suspected cancer clusters.  In 2002, a suspected cluster was
identified outside of San Diego. Valley Center residents have
documented 14 cases of childhood cancer between 1997 and 2002. Parents
believed there may be a link in the cases, with most of the children
affected living in the same general area.

According to Trevor Smith, NDCA Youth Ambassador (former San Diego
resident) of the McCall, Idaho suspected cancer cluster,” Cancer is
like a pebble dropped into still water – the effect ripples through
your life, your family, and your community.”

About NDCA

NDCA promotes vibrant, healthy communities through empowerment and
supportive partnerships. NDCA was formed out of the urgent need to
identify and respond to emerging disease clusters. NDCA is comprised of
agency, staff, nonprofit organizations, community activists,
scientists, and academia.

The San Diego Channel

Updated: 7:07 p.m. PST January 24, 2002

Experts To Investigate Cancer Cluster

Several Cancer Cases Found In Valley Center

VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — Some Valley Center parents may finally get answers to life and death questions about an unusually high number of cancer cases in the area, 10News reported.

County Leaders Starting To Listen

Medical experts from the University of California, Irvine, have arrived in the area to try to determine the reason, if any, for the cancer cluster.

The first cases started popping up in 1997, affecting people like Michael Cooper.

Cooper has been fighting one of the most aggressive forms of leukemia since last summer. After several rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell replacement, Cooper’s chances of survival are better, but the fight has left his family emotionally and financially exhausted.

“Everything from financial to emotional, it has been the most horrifying experience of our lives,” Cooper’s mother, Kim, said.

Cooper is not alone.

Penny Gipson’s daughter, Laura, died from a brain tumor just days before her 20th birthday.

“It looked like she was going to make it. It really did,” Gipson told 10News.

Valley Center residents have documented 14 cases of childhood cancer in the last five years, 10News reported. The small community began to pick up on the trend, comparing notes.

Parents believe there may be a link in the cases, with most of the children affected living in the same general area.

“Some of are main concerns are with pesticides,” Gipson said. “We’d like to have the soil and water tested at the homes of the children who have been diagnosed with cancer. And the school, too.”

The experts from UC Irvine will be joined by members of the California Cancer Registry in searching for an answer.

“People are listening to us, and that’s all we’re asking for. If there’s nothing, then there’s nothing. But if there’s something, let’s look into it,” Gipson said.

A community forum will be held Saturday to answer residents’ questions. The experts will not have any answers about the existence or lack of a cause but will seek community input:

Valley Center Community Forum Saturday, January 26th V.C. Upper Elementary School gym 1p.m.-4 p.m.

Regardless of the official findings, the Cooper family said they are focused on one thing: making it to the day when Michael feels like himself again.

“All I want is: My son to have a life again, and to just put all this behind us,” Kim Cooper said.

A fund has been set up to help the Cooper family deal with the expenses sparked by his cancer treatments:

Michael Cooper Fund CA Bank & Trust, Valley Center – 760/749-1311

Copyright 2002 by TheSanDiegoChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source url: http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/sand/news/stories/news-120600420020124-200152.html

==============================================

* November 17, 2001: Unit10 Investigation: Valley Center Cancer

Unit10 Investigation: Valley Center Cancer

Some Suspect ‘Cancer Cluster’ Posted: 6:20 p.m. PST November 16, 2001 Updated: 8:37 p.m. PST November 16, 2001

SAN DIEGO — An unusually high number of illnesses in Valley Center has county officials investigating the possibility of a cancer cluster, 10News’ Kim Edwards reported in a Unit10 Investigation.

Numbers Caught Attention Of Residents, County Officials

In Valley Center, open spaces, rolling hills, and orange trees outnumber people. When a dozen residents got cancer during the last decade — numbers better suited for a crowded city — it set off alarms. The numbers caught the attention first of parents and now county officials.

“I know of about seven kids that have different types of cancer,” resident Vicki Sheedy said.

Sheedy has watched neighbors get sick — even die — and worries about the odds for her healthy kids.

County Supervisor Bill Horn said that the numbers deserve attention, but warned residents not to panic.

“We are investigating,” Horn said. “We’re looking to see if there is a cancer cluster situation.”

The California Cancer Registry documented six cases of childhood cancer in Valley Center during the last 12 years. Those include three brain cancer cases, one case of leukemia, one Hodgkin’s disease case and one thyroid cancer case. When it comes to the most recent cases, investigators will need more information on the children including names, dates of birth, diagnoses and addresses so that they can piece together whether or not there is any connection between the cases.

The community may have to wait five months for the results of the investigation.

In the meantime, a fund-raiser will be held Saturday for young Michael Smith, another victim of leukemia in Valley Center.

Horn’s office plans to host community meetings in Valley Center to discuss the issue.

Source url: http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/sand/news/stories/news-108356120011116-201101.html

Cancer cause near Santa Susana Field Lab disputed

Genetics vs. pollution debated in 11 children’s cases of rare retinoblastoma

By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 04/12/2008 01:03:02 AM PDT

Researchers are at odds over whether 11 cases of a rare eye cancer found in West Valley children could be linked to pollution from the nearby Santa Susana Field Lab.

Last year, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, asked the California Department of Public Health to investigate the possibility of a cancer cluster after she learned that nine children in the area had been diagnosed with retinoblastoma – an aggressive eye cancer.

Department of Public Health analysts found 11 cases of retinoblastoma over eight years within 10 miles of the field lab.

While conceding that the incidence was slightly higher than expected, the agency report found “no statistically significant excess of retinoblastoma” and suggested that the cases were caused by genetics, not environmental issues.

But epidemiologist Hal Morgenstern, who has studied cancer rates around the field lab, said the state analysis was too broad to rule out pollution as a possible cause.

“What was done by the state really didn’t address the concerns the parents had,” Morgenstern said.

“I don’t think you can dismiss possible environmental factors, and I don’t think you can dismiss time and spatial clustering.”

Professor Morgenstern heads the epidemiology program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In a state study in the 1990s, he found higher rates of some cancers among Santa Susana Field Lab workers.

In a federal study released in 2007, he found higher rates of some cancers in the community within two miles of the lab.

Morgenstern was contacted several years ago by a group of West Valley mothers whose children had retinoblastoma, and he consulted with the state Department of Public Health for its analysis of a possible retinoblastoma cluster.

The Mothers for Retinoblastoma Awareness said they couldn’t comment about the recent studies.

The rare, fast-growing eye cancer is found in children younger than 5 and can begin growing while a child is still in the womb. Often it isn’t detected until it has grown so large that the eye must be removed.

Some 250 children in the United States and Canada are diagnosed with retinoblastoma each year. Nationally, statisticians expect 11 cases per million children under age 5.

Yet the Department of Public Health study found 11 cases of retinoblastoma among 30,000 children within 10 miles of the lab.

The study covered an 18-year period, although all retinoblastoma cases occurred between 1998 and 2005. The children lived in Canoga Park, Woodland Hills and Simi Valley.

Analysts anticipated 7.5 incidents of retinoblastoma, based on state statistics, but the Department of Public Health’s Dr. Donald Lyman said the 11 cases were not a statistically significant excess.

Morgenstern said the study covered too large an area and too long a time period, diluting significance of the fact that all the retinoblastoma cases occurred within eight years and a concentrated area.

“If there were some clusterings in space and time, they would probably be obscured in this analysis,” he said.

In a letter to Kuehl, Lyman defended the radius chosen for the study: “A smaller radius around the (Santa Susana Field Lab) would have excluded key neighborhoods where the concerned families reside.” He also defended the time period selected.

Kuehl said she was disappointed with the state study.

“They intentionally made the study so broad that you couldn’t show a cluster and neglected the time period,” Kuehl said.

Rather than call for a new analysis, Kuehl said she is considering holding a hearing to determine whether oversight is needed on how the Department of Public Health and California Cancer Registry conduct studies of cancer clusters.

Spike in cancers probed

Possible environmental factors sought in Oroville-area cases

By Dorsey Griffith – dgriffith@sacbee.com

Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

State and Butte County health officials will hunt for a possible environmental culprit in a cancer spike detected near Oroville.

The rare move comes on the heels of an analysis of state cancer data that found 23 cases of pancreatic cancer in 2004 and 2005, twice the number that would be expected for the neighborhood in question.

The decision to probe further in the Oroville area focuses attention on a now-shuttered wood preservation treatment plant, and whether contamination from the site may have caused long-term health problems for area residents.

State public health officer Mark Horton emphasized however that no link has been established between the 23 cases and any past or present environmental hazard in the area.

“We are going to proceed with further investigation to try to determine if there are any variables that may have contributed to this increase in cases,” he said in a telephone interview Monday. “I think there is absolutely no reason for community alarm, because there are many other explanations as to why this may have occurred.”

California health officials get about 100 public inquiries about possible cancer clusters every year, but most are quickly dismissed as “statistically insignificant.” Only one or two yield results that prompt follow-up action, according to a health department spokeswoman.

State and local health officials launched the initial analysis last May. It was spurred by a call to the state from a Butte County resident who had lost a friend to pancreas cancer and knew others who also had been diagnosed with the highly lethal disease.

The caller, who was not named, cited a fire in 1987 at nearby Koppers Industries Inc., a wood treatment facility south of Oroville. The plant was designated a Superfund site in 1983 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

An estimated 10,650 people live within a 3-mile radius of the plant, located a quarter-mile south of Oroville’s city limits.

Contamination from the plant was noted as early as 1973, when the pesticide pentachlorophenol (PCP) was discovered in nearby residential wells used for drinking water, according to the EPA.

Environmental officials later determined that the wood treatment operation had contaminated groundwater underneath the 40-acre industrial site and many nearby residential wells. In addition to PCP, chemicals found in the water included benzene, copper, chromium and arsenic.

After the fire, concerns were raised about potentially dangerous exposure to dioxins, highly toxic industrial byproducts known to cause cancer, which were found in high concentrations in the soil. That prompted the state to issue a health advisory warning residents to avoid consuming potentially contaminated food, including home-produced eggs and meat from chickens raised on soil. Continue Reading »