By DAVID ROSS
There is no evidence of a cancer cluster in Valley Center, according to the state agency responsible for monitoring cancer in Southern California and the County Health Department.
While the number of childhood cancer cases observed over five years is higher than expected, it is not statistically significant enough to warrant further study at this time, Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver, director of the Cancer Surveillance Program at the University of California, Irvine, told members of the Valley Center Community Response Team Committee Friday night.
The committee does not embrace those conclusions (see below).
Statistics for childhood cancers for the 92082 zip code were presented:
1988, one cancer; 1990, one cancer; 1992, two cancers; 1997, one cancer; 1998, one cancer; 2000, two cancers; 2001, four cancers; 2002, one cancer.
Information from Friday’s meeting will be published on the Cancer Registry’s website, Valley Center project, on Friday. The website address is:
http://www.epi.uci.edu/valleycenter/
For a cancer cluster to exist, Dr. Anton-Culver said, there would have to be many more cases of the same kind of cancer than have been recorded.
A distinct pattern should be seen, such as a large number of the same types of cancer, clustered around a particular suspect source. That was not observed, she said.
The reported number of cancer cases were “a little bit higher” than expected, but not “at a level of significance.”
There have been several years in VC where no cancer cases were reported. Dr. Anton-Culver said it was her “gut feeling” that there is no cluster and the data indicates no cancer cluster.
However, the University of California, Irvine, will continue to collect data. It will meet again with the committee in from four to six months and do a follow-up in from one to two years.
The committee is negotiating with the Air Quality Control District to monitor three sites on the east side of VC, looking for styrene and methel ethel keystone. It would also test at the source of these emissions, at the Survival Systems in Rincon.
The County has one air monitor in VC currently but is conducting a search to obtain two other air monitors to do the testing first in May and then again in the fall during the Santa Ana season.
The meeting, which was not open to the general public, was held at the North Inland Regional Center in Escondido.
The Roadrunner interviewed several other participants of the meeting.
No Unusual Numbers
The County’s top veterinarian also announced that a poll of VC veterinarians indicates no unusual number of animal cancers.
A wild animal surveillance by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also indicated nothing unusual.
The officials also noted that there are no nuclear waste sites, no hazardous waste sites, and no known illegal landfills in the VC area.
The number of hazardous waste incidents in VC was 38 for the period 1986-98. Twenty-two of these were drug-lab related. The last drug lab clean-up was in 1995, according to the County.
The County Health Dept. plans to do a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) overlay to relate the clean-up areas to the locations of cancer cases.
At the meeting officials of the water district and Dr. Anton-Culver discussed water testing that should be done at each school. Since VCMWD was unsure which chemicals the Cancer Registry was interested in, Dr. Anton-Culver promised to provide a list.
County health officials credited the local water district, VCMWD, with an “aggressive” backflow prevention program, which would prevent foreign materials from contaminating local water supplies.
Anton-Culver urged the VC Community Response Team Committee to be both objective and educational in reporting the results to date.
They should be concerned and the “psycho-social” needs of the community, as well as the economic impacts, she advised.
She told them that the community needs to hear a message of patience and to focus on general cancer prevention.
She repeated a statement made in January that cancer in young children is usually tied to a genetic predisposition, in-utero exposures, or exposures immediately after birth.
Risk to young children are in common pesticides and chemicals found in the home, she said.
The members of the VC Committee Monday issued a statement calling into question some of the Registry’s findings.
[A full text of the committee’s statement may be viewed on The Roadrunner website after Thursday:
www.valleycenter.com ]
The statement, authored by Kerry Carr, a mother of one of the childhood cancer patients, said (in part):
“The Cancer Registry gave a presentation on the statistics concerning the incidence of childhood cancers in San Diego County. They then made certain assumptions and based on their methodology, Valley Center might assume just under four childhood cancers in the five year period between 1997-2001. Valley Center reported eight cases— double the San Diego County average. However, if ten cases were reported it would have been a ‘statistically significant amount.’ We are currently reviewing the methodology and the calculations used.”
Mrs. Carr added, “Four cases of childhood cancers were not included in the Valley Center 92082 area statistics because two of the children had moved to an Escondido Zip code one to three months before their final diagnosis with cancer, one of the children was ago 20 before final diagnosis and Mike Cooper will not be included in the statistics even though he is in our school district and water district, his Zip code is not 92082.
“The statistical methodology required had to exclude these four children. Otherwise, the numbers would have been 12 cases within the years 1997 and 2001— a statistically significant number,” Mrs. Carr wrote.
The committee has also been provided a list of pesticides and herbicides used in The Valley over the last ten years.
“. . . we are currently reviewing it and receiving help with keys to certain information from the County Agricultural administrators. We will write more about this next week,” wrote Mrs. Carr.
She concluded: “As a mother of a child with cancer, I more than anyone want an investigation to go forward in order to find a possible answer as to why my child and all the other children have gotten sick in our town. One surprising face I learned at the Friday meeting was that leukemia can have a six year latency period before it is diagnosed. As it stands, we must wait out the next few months and hope that no other children are diagnosed with cancer in our town before our next meeting.
“Hopefully, no more cancers will occur in Valley Center children in 2001, so we can presume that this all could have been a statistical aberration.”
* * *
Those at Friday’s meeting included the four members of the Valley Center Community Response Team Committee: Kerry Carr, Judy Silverman, Michael Cooper and Penny Gipson; members of the Cancer Registry, including Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver, director; Deborah Bringman, assistant director; Thomas H. Taylor, Ph.D., senior biostatistician; Ruby Trejo, community services coordinator; from the County: Dr. George Flores, Chief Public Health Officer; Deirdre Browner, biostatistician, Dept. of Health & Human Services; Richard Smith, acting director, San Diego Air Pollution Control District; Kathleen Thunder, County Agricultural Commissioner; Gary Erbeck, director, Dept. of Environmental Health; from the State of California: Shankar Prasad, community health advisor and Brent Takemoto, air pollution research specialist; both of the California Air Resources Board; Robert Morris, Senior Engineer, California Water Quality Control Board, Region 9; from the VC Municipal Water District: Ken Simon, water/waste water supervisor.
Also attending were Dr. Nikos Gurfield, county veterinarian, and representatives from Senator Barbara Boxer’s office as well as Joy Williams of the Environmental Health Coalition.
Dr. Jeff Mulford, Superintendent of Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District, received the Marcus Foster award March 21 at the San Diego County ACSA meeting.
The Assn. of School Administrators (ACSA) gives this award honoring leaders for their dedication, hard work and compassion for public education.
The Marcus Foster award is given to only one ACSA member exemplifying the following characteristics:
• An administrator who is a skilled manager of change.
• An administrator whose management style involves many sectors of the community, in addition to broad professional involvement.
• An administrator who is willing to take risks to improve educational opportunities.
• An administrator who is creative, who is willing to try new ideas and who reaches out to children.
• An administrator who speaks out in his community on issues that have an impact on children.
• An administrator who respects all people, especially children, as human beings, and who protects the rights of all persons.
The Marcus Foster award is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field of education.
Another VC superintendent, Dr. Mulford’s predecessor Harry Weinberg, was given the same honor during his tenure.
By DAVID ROSS
The fire board voted unanimously Thursday to end the paid-call firefighter program and roll the two remaining paid-call firefighters into the reserves.
The paid call program, which replaced the volunteer program back in the late 80’s, was seen by Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary as having outlived its usefulness now that the reserve program, instituted in 1997, has almost completely replaced it.
The difference between reserves and paid call firefighters is flexibility. Reservists are committed to being at the fire station at certain times, whereas paid call firefighters commit to serving a certain number of hours, but not at a particular time.
There are currently two paid-call firefighters: Charlie Knust and Pat Taylor.
“The program was very successful but I feel we need to look at having one program,” Chief O’Leary told the board.
“We can’t accommodate everyone. We can’t have special rules for everyone. We need to look at our existing paid call personnel being folded into our reserve program. I think the days of the paid call program are gone.”
The board agreed. Board Chairman Mel Schuler commented, “There was a time when we had all volunteers and we went to paid call. We went from paid call to reserve because scheduling wasn’t dependable.”
He added, “It becomes more dependable for the people trying to run the program to have people that are committed not just to training but to showing up.”
The reserve program works for the district, said Schuler. “It’s time to roll the paid call into one program.”
Since it was instituted, the number of paid call firefighters has fallen to two. At the same time, the fire chief has recommend expanding the reserve program so that there are at least two firefighters per fire engine at any one time.
Director Mike Pacheco, commented, “We’re talking about two paid call and they have both been exceptional employees. Is there a way we can somehow grandfather these two people in with less shift requirements? Because of the two schedules these two individuals have they may not be able to commit.”
Director Dan Thornton said, “The only problem there would be that you’ve done away with the name but kept the program.”
“They’ve done a lot of things for us. It would be nice to accommodate them,” said Pacheco.
Director Stan Johnson commented, “It creates a lot of problems having a two tiered program for anyone. I think we would be defeating the purpose if we were to eliminate the paid call but give them any special privileges.”
“They need to meet the minimal requirements,” said O’Leary.
“Why would we get rid of the paid call program if we’re going to make special arrangements,” said Thornton. “If we’re going to do it we need to make a clean cut and apply it evenly.”
The VC Municipal Water District is saying goodbye to three men whose combined experience is 87 years: Ken Simon, Jere Jarrell and Larry Watson.
The water board recognized the trio at its April 15 meeting when Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant declared: “They are taking almost a century of experience, but beyond that they’ve been really good employees and a real asset to this district and this community.”
Watson has been an employee since 1974 and served as a meter installer, and will retire as senior operations technician.
In 1989 he was the man most responsible for installing the current telemetry system, that measures water levels at the district’s various reservoirs, and will be phasing out about the same time as Watson.
“A lot of larry’s ingenuity and insight went into that system., said Arant, who said that during his career Watson distinguished himself many times.
In all those years he had not one lost time accident. He received accident free certificates several years in row.
Kenneth P. Simon is the most senior of the three, having joined the district in 1968.
He has served as a utility man, waste water treatment technician, waste water treatment foreman, and retires as supervisor of waste water and water systems.
In retirement he will put his numerous certificates to part time use.
He has been Employee of the Year and Employee of the Month many times.
At the April 15 meeting he returned the compliment by saying, “I’ve always appreciated the jobs that you directors have done over the years that made it possible for me to make a pretty good living here and for CALPERS, which made it possible for me to retire.”
Jere L. Jarrell has been finance director of the district for more than 25, although he admitted that he did install meters for one day.
During that quarter century his department received five consecutive awards for excellence, and ten certificates from the California Governmental Finance Assn.
“Jere always found himself involved in something special and often urgent,” said Arant.
He developed the district’s drought program, numerous computer programs and oversaw many physical improvements.
His department pioneered electronic data management. He is one of the recognized statewide experts in electric power, and was instrumental in changing retirement program at the district to CALPERS.
He is well-known at the Assn. of California Water Agencies, where he has served on many committees and chaired a committee on joint powers insurance.
Active in the community, he was VC Kiwanian of the Year.
Board Pres. Gary Broomell told the trio, “They say everybody can be replaced, and in the long run that’s true, but you wonder how many years it’s going to take to get back up to where these gentlemen are.
“it makes someone like me very nervous to lose all these guys at the same time. They are the people who have made this water district what it is. I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate the dedication you guys have given all these years.”
By KERRY CARR
The four members elected by the community to sit on a panel with health experts met last Friday with the California Cancer Registry, the County of San Diego Health Department and about five other agencies, including the VCMWD. Representatives from Senator Boxer’s office and Joy Williams from the Environmental Health Coalition were also present at this meeting.
The statistics on cancer in the 92082 zip code were presented as follows:
Year # of Childhood Cancers Reported 1988 1 1990 1 1992 2 1997 1 1998 1 2000 2 2001 4 2002 1 The Cancer Registry gave a presentation on the statistics concerning the incidence of childhood cancers in San Diego County. They then made certain assumptions and based on their methodology, Valley Center might assume just under four childhood cancers in the five year period between 1997 and 2001. Valley Center reported eight cases -- double the San Diego County average. However, if ten cases were reported it would have been “a statistically significant amount.” We are currently reviewing the methodology and the calculations used.
Four cases of childhood cancers were not included in the Valley Center 92082 area statistics because two of the children had moved to an Escondido zip code one to three months before their final diagnosis with cancer, one of the children was age 20 before final diagnosis, and Mike Cooper will not be included in the statistics even though he is in our school district and water district, since his zip code is not 92082.
The statistical methodology required had to exclude these four children. Otherwise, the numbers would have been 12 cases within the years 1997 and 2001 -- a statistically significant number.
The Cancer Registry and Dr. Anton-Culver are not closing this investigation however, and will continue to monitor the situation closely.
The Valley Center Community Response Team Committee will be meeting with the health officials again in four months.
Meanwhile Dr. Anton-Culver advocated any testing by the county or state which could be done in the meantime to ease the fears of concerned residents would be helpful. We are currently in negotiations with the County Air Pollution Control District to install air monitors in three locations in Valley Center. The county has only one air monitor at the present time, but is conducting a search to try to obtain two other air monitors to do the testing first in May and then again in the fall during Santa Ana season.
At the Friday meeting there was a discussion between Dr. Anton-Culver and the VCMWD concerning water testing that should be done at each of the schools. Since the VCMWD was not sure which chemicals to test for, Dr. Anton-Culver will provide them with a list. The VCMWD was agreeable to this.
A list of pesticides and herbicides used in Valley Center over the last ten years was sent to us by the state and we are currently reviewing it and receiving help with keys to certain information from the county agricultural administrators. We will write more about this next week.
As the mother of a child with cancer, I more than anyone want an investigation to go forward in order to find a possible answer as to why my child and all the other children have gotten sick in our town. One surprising fact I learned at the Friday meeting was that leukemia can have a six year latency period before it is diagnosed. As it stands, we must wait out the next few months and hope that no other children are diagnosed with cancer in our town before our next meeting.
Hopefully, no more cancers will occur in Valley Center children in 2002, so we can presume that this all could have been a statistical aberration.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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