High Lung Cancer Rate Found Near Rocketdyne
A study of people living near the Rocketdyne test laboratory shows 17% more cases of lung cancer than expected, a finding state officials knew two years ago but did not disclose--prompting charges of a cover-up from local lawmakers and environmentalists pressing for cleanup of the troubled facility.
The report released Thursday does not identify the cause of the higher disease rates, and its author said that in addition to pollution at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, factors ranging from smog to old age to smoking could explain the higher incidence of lung cancer in the community.
The findings come at a time of heightened sensitivity about contamination at the lab. Community leaders were anxious Thursday as the company began exploding 53 bombs recently discovered in canyons at the site. Meanwhile, UCLA scientists today are set to announce results of a long-awaited health study, the second in two years, examining health of workers at the lab.
The study disclosed Thursday is a separate effort, but is likely to escalate debate about whether the contamination at the rocket testing plant imperils neighbors. Critics, including residents, some local lawmakers and activists, say the latest findings underscore the need to broaden health investigations to include people living in subdivisions near the lab.
In the report by the Central Coast division of the California Cancer Registry, researchers found more incidents of lung cancer among 91,000 residents living within five miles of the lab.
Based on the average frequency of lung cancer in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, researchers expected to find 261 such cancers in the census tracts they examined, but instead found 306.
The report examined a dozen types of cancer reported in the study area between 1988 and 1995. Taken as a whole, cancer prevalence in those categories were within expected ranges. Some cancers, particularly those most often associated with exposure to radiation--a serious concern due to the presence of nuclear reactors and materials once used at the lab--were much lower than anticipated, said author and research epidemiologist Kiumarss Nasseri.
“My conclusion . . . is that residents of the study area seem to have cancer incidence risk which is similar to that of the other residents of the tri-counties region,” except for lung cancer, Nasseri wrote in a September 1997 letter to the Ventura County health department.
Nasseri describes his work as a “preliminary, simple analysis.” It has not been reviewed by independent scientists to double-check veracity nor has it been published in a scientific journal. He said he did the work at the request of Paul E. Lorenz, director of the Ventura County Public Health Services Department.
The report was provided to the state Department of Health Services in October 1997, but the agency did not forward it to UCLA researchers engaged in the worker health study, to an oversight panel appointed by state lawmakers, or to the public.
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It surfaced this week when the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a Los Angeles-based group pressing for cleanup of the Santa Susana lab, gave it to Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). Critics accuse the health department of suppressing the document in an attempt to minimize health risks associated with the lab. They say it signals the need for a wider study in the community to determine if the Rocketdyne facility poisoned its neighbors, and for greater oversight of the state health department’s dealings with Rocketdyne.
“I am stunned and very angry that DHS would choose to sit on information like this,” Kuehl said, in a prepared statement. “There should have been an immediate assessment of any potential risks to the community. Panel members have been continuously pressing for this type of information for the Ventura County communities, and now it turns out that DHS knew all along that there was a potential problem. This is truly outrageous.”
A similar community cancer survey, completed in 1991 by the state health department, revealed a higher than expected number of bladder cancer cases among people living near the lab. That study did not come to light until uncovered by the news media, drawing the wrath of local lawmakers who demanded the creation of an oversight panel to supervise health research at the Rocketdyne lab.
“It’s very bad news we have elevated lung cancer among residents living next to the Simi Valley lab,” said Joseph Lyou with Committee to Bridge the Gap. “The health department has withheld this from the public. History has now repeated itself. I’m flabbergasted DHS has such a flat learning curve.”
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Raymond R. Neutra, division chief for environmental and occupational disease control at the state health department, said his agency did not divulge the 1997 report because the findings are ambiguous and do not indicate a significant health problem. He said officials at the state Cancer Registry, in Ventura County and two branches of the state health department reached the same conclusion.
“We didn’t suppress anything. There was no attempt to hide this,” Neutra said. “We interpreted it as a non-issue and filed it. People (in the health department) reacted to this as so uninformative that they didn’t even consider telling people” in other branches of the agency or the public, he said.
Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck described the furor over the report as “more about politics than science.” Said Beck: “Rocketdyne is not the cause of this [lung cancer].”
Indeed, determining the cause is very difficult, and Nasseri on Thursday said his study did not attempt to do that. There is a possibility nothing is to blame, that the excess lung cancers may be a random clustering, which is bound to occur in any survey of numerous census tracts.
About 85% of the incidence of lung cancer--which kills more Americans than any other cancer--is caused by smoking, yet the study did not take into account the smoking habits of people living near the Santa Susana lab. Nor did it account for age, workplace exposures to chemicals or air pollution--Simi Valley is one of the smoggiest cities in California--other significant risk factors for lung disease.
The study also did not consider radon as a possible cause of lung cancer. Bob Gallagher, manager for the resources section of the Ventura County Environmental Health Division, said about 8% of the homes in Simi Valley exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for radon, an odorless, naturally occurring gas, that is the nation’s second leading cause of lung cancer.
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“With lung cancer being the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and women, and being related to smoking, you’re bound to get these variations” in cancer rates, Nasseri said. “Is it related to the environment? I don’t know. It’s not clear. We have no idea. I cannot relate it to anything as a cause.”
The 2,668-acre Rocketdyne field laboratory, located between Simi Valley and Canoga Park, opened in 1948 to design the nation’s first rocket engines. In the early 1950s, part of it was set aside for the development of model nuclear power reactors. Up to 10 reactors once operated at the lab, but atomic research was discontinued at the lab in the 1980s.
Seattle-based plane builder Boeing Inc. acquired Rockwell Corp.’s space operations, including Rocketdyne, in 1996.
