BOEING STUDY SHOWS CONFLICTING RESULTS ON CANCER INCIDENCE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

A long-awaited health study of Santa Susana Field Lab employees found that workers exposed to radiation or toxic chemicals may have been more likely to develop leukemia or lung cancer, but the overall work force did not suffer higher cancer rates.

The report - prepared for and paid by Boeing and released Friday - marks the company's response to studies done by UCLA in 1997 and 1999, which found higher cancer rates among workers exposed to radiation and the rocket fuel ingredient hydrazine.

Boeing officials said their study should put an end to concerns that employees and neighbors developed cancer because of contamination from the nuclear and rocket research laboratory between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

``It's encouraging that the evidence suggests that the hill is not an inherently dangerous place to work,'' said John Mitchell, spokesman for Boeing, which owns and operates the field lab.

But lab watchdogs and some former employees questioned the company's findings.

``It's just like the tobacco industry hiring a hired gun to claim that smoking isn't bad for you. But if you read the study carefully it shows that exposed workers at Rocketdyne had excess risk of cancer,'' said Dan Hirsch, with Committee to Bridge the Gap.

The Boeing study tracked analyzed causes of death of more than 11,000 Rocketdyne employees who had worked in nuclear technology development and rocket engine testing from 1948-99.

Researchers found overall Rocketdyne workers had a lower rate of cancer deaths compared with the general population of California.

However, the study also found that workers exposed to higher levels of radiation had higher rates of leukemia, and rocket test-stand mechanics who handled hydrazine had a higher rate of lung cancer.

Those findings mirror the UCLA study conclusions.

However, Boeing study researchers downplayed the increase in leukemia and lung cancer, calling them ``not statistically significant.'' They said there were not enough cases to determine if the deaths were work-related or coincidental.

``We conclude that radiation exposure has not caused a detectable increase in cancer deaths in this population and that work at the SSFL rocket engine-test facility or as a test-stand mechanic is not associated with a statistically significant increase in cancer mortality overall or for any specific cancer.''

But one of the UCLA study authors said categorizing the leukemia and lung cancer rates as statistically insignificant is ``very potentially misleading.''

``We came up with findings that suggest there are some adverse effects of working at Rocketdyne,'' said Hal Morgenstern, formerly of University of California, Los Angeles, and now the chairman of the epidemiology department at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

``They dispense with our findings (by) saying they are statistically insignificant.''

Morgenstern said the Boeing-funded study's conclusions are based on comparisons of Rocketdyne workers against the general population of California, which can be misleading. Generally, full-time workers tend to be healthier than the general population.

``Their approach was set up to avoid the opportunity to really see the evidence of occupational exposure when it exists.''

But John Boice, who headed the Boeing research team, said his group also compared cancer rates of radiation and chemical workers with cancer rates of other Rocketdyne employees and still found no significant increase in cancer deaths.

``The reassuring news was that there didn't appear to be a big signal or evidence of increased risk of cancers overall or any specific cancer.''

But former Rocketdyne employee Bonnie Klea was not reassured.

``It was insane because they only studied dead workers and they didn't study incidences of cancer. It's useless to have a study of mortality because these days cancer is treatable,'' said Klea, herself a bladder cancer survivor who worked as a secretary and moved in high-security areas at the field lab.

She worries Boeing will use the new health study as evidence to deny workers compensation for cancer treatment.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com