Fallon Leukemia Cluster - People uneasy where 3 Fallon leukemia victims once lived

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People uneasy where 3 Fallon leukemia victims once lived

By X. Mullen Jr.

Reno Gazette-Journal

Friday June 1st, 2001

FALLON - At the apartment complex where three of the 14 Fallon leukemia

patients once lived, tenants said Thursday they are dealing with a cluster

of fear.

" I'm very, very concerned that the three families living here is more than

coincidence, " said Oaks, who's lived in the Sunridge Quarters

Apartments at 1755 Auction Road for two months.

" No one knows how the children are getting leukemia. Is it something in the

water or the air or the ground? What has changed here in the last few

years? "

Those are the same questions being asked by many Fallon residents and state

and federal investigators. Since 1997, 14 Fallon children have been

diagnosed with acute leukemia, 13 of them in the last two years. State and

federal health officials are putting together a list of biological and

environmental testing procedures, but don't plan to start the tests until

the end of the summer.

Officials of the Nevada Health Division said investigators knew that three

of the families lived in the apartments, but the information wasn't provided

to the families or the public. The news only surfaced after 10 of the

families went on a trip to Disneyland last month and talked among

themselves.

Health officials said they tested water at the apartment complex and turned

up no evidence of contaminants that could be linked to the leukemia cases.

They said they kept the information secret because of patient

confidentiality.

They said further tests are planned at the apartment complex, which has been

owned by the state Rural Housing Authority since June 15, 2000. Fallon

Associates LP, the previous owner of the buildings, is no longer listed as a

Nevada limited partnership, according to the Nevada secretary of state's

staff.

Oaks said the people in the complex of several buildings have a right to

know the apartments have been linked to the leukemia cases. She fears for

her daughter, Stacey, 15, and hopes the investigators find out what is

causing the leukemia outbreak and stop it.

" Whatever is undercover here needs to be found, " she said. " The

investigators need to step up to the plate and find it as soon as possible. "

Debbie Rhoads, Oaks' neighbor, said she worries about her children, Dominic,

16, and , 9. She said her family no longer drinks Fallon's water

because the arsenic content is two or three times the minimum drinking water

standard.

Health officials have said the town's long-standing arsenic problem probably

isn't a cause of the leukemia cases.

" First the arsenic, no something else to worry about, " said Rhoads, who has

lived there for nine months. " It's scary. Something's going on here. When I

found out about the arsenic levels, I almost fainted. This (leukemia) is

much worse.

" It can't be a fluke. There's a reason for it. "

April Glover, who's also lived in the complex since September, said she also

worries about the arsenic, the leukemia cluster and the safety of her three

small children.

" The water worries me a lot, " she said. " The kids play in the water and kids

get into everything. "

Glover said her husband is in the Army and she will be moving to North

Carolina in August. But Oaks and Rhoads will be staying at Sunridge.

" It seems like people should be rallying to find a cause for the cancer

cluster, " Oaks said.

She said she read about Adam Jernee, 10, one of the first four leukemia

cases to be diagnosed in Fallon, who is dying in an Orange County, Calif.,

hospital.

" It's so sad, now a child is dying, " she said. " What is here, what is in the

dark, needs to come out into the light. Seek and ye shall find. "

PUBLIC MEETING:

Town meeting on the Fallon leukemia cluster, June 6, 7 p.m., Fallon

Community Center, 100 Campus Way, Fallon. Sponsored by the University of

Nevada, Reno, and hosted by Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon.

TO HELP FALLON FAMILIES:

To help the Fallon families affected by the leukemia cluster, donations may

be made to the Mayor's Youth Fund, 55 Ave., Fallon, NV 89406.

Attention: Fallon Families First/city clerk. For more information about

contributions: 775-423-5104.