August 18, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Cancer Rate Concerns Scientists
By Raam Wong, Journal Northern BureauSANTA FE — Thyroid cancer rates remain significantly higher among women in Los Alamos County than the rest of the state, according to newly released data.
"The rate is high," said Charles Wiggins, director of the New Mexico Tumor Registry at the University of New Mexico. "Why it is, I can't tell you."
A 1996 state Health Department epidemiology study could not explain why Los Alamos County residents developed thyroid cancer at a rate four times higher than the rest of the state between 1988 through 1995.
Since then, the rate among non-Hispanic white males in Los Alamos County has been falling and today is below the statewide average. But the rate among Anglo women remains a concern: 66 cases per 100,000 residents between 2001 and 2005, compared with an average of 21 cases for all other counties. In real numbers, that's 22 cases among the population of non-Hispanic white women in Los Alamos County.
Numbers like that warrant further analysis, according to public health officials. The state Health Department plans to do a "descriptive epidemiology" analysis in hopes of identifying patterns in the disease, according to spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer.
A high rate of cancer in a particular region inevitably raises concerns that environmental hazards — such as nuclear weapons work at Los Alamos National Laboratory — may be a factor.
But health experts caution against drawing conclusions from the data without further study. The 1996 study couldn't explain the cause of the high rate and found no conclusive evidence that radiation from LANL was to blame. The high rate was likely to have multiple causes, the report concluded.