Researcher pursues latest suspect in Fallon leukemia cluster

FALLON -- The list of suspects in a mysterious cancer cluster investigation grew by one late last summer -- tungsten.

Federal scientists were puzzled, town residents even more so. The little-studied heavy metal -- thought to have no ill health effects -- had seeped inside the people and water supply of this rural community in extremely high levels.

Could it be the cause of leukemia that sickened 16 children, killing three? Or was the chemical element simply another in the string of environmental oddities that have confounded area families and scientists searching for answers?

Most say it's too soon to tell, and more federal studies are under way.

But Arizona researcher Dr. Mark Witten is turning heads in Fallon and Atlanta federal health offices with his recent bold assessment: "tungsten is not benign."

Passionate and media savvy, the Tucson-based professor says nine months of independent laboratory and field testing demonstrate a link between the steel-strengthening metal and childhood leukemia clusters in Fallon and Sierra Vista, Ariz.

Witten, who wears jeans and a bright red University of Arizona cap, has chatted with townspeople, talked up federal scientists and leaked research details to local newspapers. But the unconventional researcher is respected for his past studies on jet fuel, and he's spent $15,000 of his own money on this latest effort -- taken up as an "intellectual challenge."

The confident pediatric researcher has won admirers and critics by racing ahead of plodding government agencies and trying untested scientific methods -- analyzing tree-ring samples for minerals.

"We're creating new science here," Witten told federal researchers after a recent community meeting.

That earned a nod and faint encouragement from Dr. Carol Rubin, lead Fallon investigator for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rubin will only call the area's high tungsten levels "extremely important findings" meriting two new CDC tests.

The huge Atlanta-based agency has recommended that the National Toxicology Program search for health effects of tungsten in rodents, but that study might not begin for months.

A 1Y-year-long CDC cluster survey -- unprecedented in scale and data quantity -- tested 205 people, water, air and soil for hundreds of contaminants. It found elevated levels of tungsten and arsenic in tap water and blood and urine of most of those tested. But it turned up no tungsten-level differences between leukemia-stricken children and healthy youngsters.

While eight in 10 Churchill County residents had tungsten levels above a national baseline, only one in 10 Americans have such high levels.

Naturally occurring tungsten once was mined outside Fallon and a tungsten carbide plant is nearby.

Since 1997, 16 children have been diagnosed in Fallon and surrounding Churchill County with acute lymphocytic leukemia. ALL, the most common form of childhood cancer, is still extremely rare, averaging about three cases per 100,000 people nationwide.

The northern Nevada farming community where only 24,000 people live, is also the proud home of a Navy "Top Gun" fighter jet training base -- itself once a suspected source of leukemia-causing contaminants.

Health officials recently identified a tenth childhood leukemia case in Sierra Vista, an Arizona military town of 39,000. One child has died.

Similarities between the two clusters drive Witten's research.

He says preliminary lab tests -- not yet confirmed or duplicated -- show pure tungsten and tungsten ore alter the growth of ALL cells. Such findings would make the metal a trigger but not a cause of the blood-borne cancer.

The CDC and Nevada state epidemiologist Randall Todd cautioned that such research must be duplicated and other studies conducted.

Tree ring samples taken by university colleague Paul Sheppard show tungsten levels near Fallon and Sierra Vista growing by more than 40 percent during the past two decades, but no scientist had ever before used such measures to track minerals.

Witten hopes his methods fill scientific knowledge gaps and prod state and federal health agencies into quicker action.

"In less than a year, we have made very good progress," Witten said. "And in some ways, we're ahead because we're getting down to the mechanisms, and they're still collecting data."

Tungsten is one of the strongest metals and has the highest melting point. It ranges in color from steel-gray to tin-white and is used in production of steel, rock drills and metal cutting tools. Tungsten compounds are found in television tubes and incandescent light filaments.

Previous research into tungsten is surprisingly skimpy compared with other metals, says Dr. Christos Christodoulatos, head of Center for Environmental Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.

"Tungsten is a new thing for us, and for a lot of people," said Christodoulatos, who is researching the metal separately for the U.S. Army.

"People were under the impression that it's very conservative, meaning inactive when you put it in water, but in environmental systems sometimes that might not be the case."

Federal scientists are inclined to agree.

Gary Campbell of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has dismissed a jet fuel pipeline and Navy plane exhaust as causes of the Fallon cluster. But he won't do so for Kennametal Inc., the tungsten carbide plant north of town.

"I don't think you can rule that out right now. Obviously, more research needs to be done," Campbell said.

Witten gets a mixed reception from parents of sickened children. Some have welcomed him into their ranch-style homes.

"He's on the right path," said Jeff Braccini, whose 4-year-old son Jeremy was diagnosed in December 2001.

Tests showed Jeremy had high tungsten levels in his blood and urine.

"My son is just polluted in that stuff," Braccini said.

Braccini worked at the Kennametal plant five years ago. "There's some things that we all question out there," he said of allegations of lax pollutant controls in the past. Kennametal said its emissions complied with state law.

Braccini and Witten suspect heavy rains in 1997 might have released tungsten-tainted water previously held behind the nearby Lahontan Dam into Fallon's supply. The rains caused a rare flood in Reno, 60 miles west.

"It's a big natural event," Witten said. "We're talking about huge amounts of water. Who knows what (overflow) carried into the Fallon area. And the cancers started soon after that."

Such theories have other parents wary. Tammi Beardsley is among those who have grown tired of tracking the ever-shifting array of suspects, including agricultural chemicals and jet fuel.

"In the beginning you're kind of excited," said Beardsley, whose 7-year-old son Zac has leukemia. "But now, it's exhausting."

"I don't know anything about the tungsten and I don't really care," she said, adding that she was more concerned about Zac's leg cramps, rashes and headaches, all side effects of the drugs used to combat leukemia.

"I want my child alive. At this point, I really don't give a damn what got him here."

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On the Net: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Fallon Report: www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/Fallon/