CANCER HIGHER AROUND FIELD LAB; LAWMAKER QUESTIONS DELAY IN DATA'S RELEASE.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer Moderately higher than normal incidences of lung and other cancers were found among people living around Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report compiled in 1997 but withheld until Thursday. The report drew no conclusions about the cause of the higher cancer rates in the area studied - U.S. Census tracts that cover most of Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. , parts of Bell Canyon and open space east of Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. within five miles of the Santa Susana site. In releasing the report, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American politician, and a former child actress. She is currently a Democratic member of the California State Senate, representing the highly urbanized 23rd district in Los Angeles County and parts of southern said the information, which compares expected and actual cases of invasive cancers from 1988-95, had been ``suppressed'' by the state Department of Health. ``I think it's completely unconscionable Unusually harsh and shocking to the conscience; that which is so grossly unfair that a court will proscribe it. When a court uses the word unconscionable to describe conduct, it means that the conduct does not conform to the dictates of conscience. ,'' said Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. ``Anyone working with health officials ought to be on the side of the health of the residents.'' Kuehl called for the dismissal of the Department of Health's three top administrators overseeing health investigations at Rocketdyne, and pressed for a long-called-for health study of the community. A spokeswoman for Grantland Johnson, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services Noun 1. Department of Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Health and Human Services, HHS , said the office will investigate the situation. The report was made public before today's release of the second part of a landmark study by University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. , researchers of cancer mortality among workers at the hilltop facility. The first study showed higher deaths among workers who were exposed to radiation during decades of nuclear research and development. Responding to Kuehl's comments on the 1997 report released Thursday, state health department officials defended their role. They said the report showed nothing conclusive about the origins of the cancers, which is why it was not released. They said it was added to their ongoing investigations into the 2,600-acre field lab. ``All of us, as we looked at it, said this is not suggestive, this is not informative,'' said Dr. Raymond Neutra, chief of the division of environmental and occupational disease control, who oversees two branches in the Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
``You don't make a public announcement (when) we have something that doesn't mean anything,'' Neutra said. ``The proper response is to do a feasibility study "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 April, 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived The Outer Limits series with a minor title change. and determine how you can look at the community around it.'' He said he welcomed an investigation into his department's handling of the report. Concerns about environmental problems at Santa Susana have been high since the Daily News disclosed a decade ago that toxic contamination existed in soil at the facility where radioactive and rocket fuel research has been conducted for more than 50 years. The report released Thursday was based on information from the state cancer registry A cancer registry is a systematic collection of data about cancer and tumor diseases. The data is collected by Cancer Registrars. Cancer Registrars capture a complete summary of patient history, diagnosis, treatment, and status for every cancer patient in the United States, and . It was conducted in 1997 at the request of the Ventura County Public Health Department, shortly after the first UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX study. The study showed higher-than-expected incidences of lung and bronchus bronchus: see lungs. cancer among residents living within five miles of the field lab. It found 41 more incidences of those cancers than is to be expected, based on national data. That includes 166 men with lung and bronchus cancer, compared with a national average of 145.7; and 140 women, compared with 115.3. It also found significantly lower incidences of leukemia among women. However, the study said further investigation would be needed to determine whether the cancers were caused by demographic factors, such as smoking, or environmental ones. The study noted that nearly 85 percent of lung cancers are related to smoking tobacco. Among all 12 types of cancers studied, there were 60 more cases found than otherwise would be expected. ``At this stage, this information does not warrant an all-out environmental review, it warrants additional look at the data,'' Dr. Kiumarss Nasseri, a research epidemiologist at the Tri-Counties Regional Cancer Registry in Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. , said about his four-page report. The report was forwarded to the statewide cancer surveillance program, which Nasseri said forwarded a copy in the fall of 1997 to the health department's Environmental Health Investigation Branch. The information was released after a public records act request, officials said. Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck said the company had not known about the study, which he said should have undergone peer review before being released. ``This is about politics, not science,'' Beck said. ``You have to question this. I think it points to the increased politicization of this whole process.'' However, some said the report shows the need for a community health study, which the state health department's environmental health branch has been considering. Prospects for a community health study are to be discussed following the release of the UCLA study, being overseen by the health department's occupational health branch. That study, launched in 1992, was prompted after the release of cancer tract information from Los Angeles County neighborhoods around the field lab that showed higher-than-average rates of bladder cancer bladder cancer Malignant tumour of the bladder. The most significant risk factor associated with bladder cancer is smoking. Exposure to chemicals called arylamines, which are used in the leather, rubber, printing, and textiles industries, is another risk factor. among residents in the West Hills-Chatsworth area east of the field lab. ``We need to take a study of the area around Rocketdyne,'' said state Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, one of a trio of legislators who pushed for the worker study following those reports. ``It has to be a study that lets us see, for people who have been living there a long period of time. The only way you are going to find that out is if you do a study now.'' Concern over the field lab erupted after disclosures in 1989 of radiation and chemical contamination at the site, which prompted a massive federal cleanup of the facility that was purchased a few years ago by Boeing. The Department of Energy, which had contracted with the previous owner to operate part of the site, awarded Boeing $148.5 million last year to finish cleaning up the facility by 2006. CAPTION(S): map, 2 charts Map: Ventura County cancer analysis Chart: (1) Lung cancer rates (2) Invasive cancer rates |
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