Cancer Registry releases study on cancer rates near LQMS
Today, the Desert Sands Unified School District released a study that says a cancer excess in the area around La Quinta Middle School doesn’t exist.
The study was conducted by the California Cancer Registry, which is a part of the California Department of Public Health.
Earlier this year new concerns were raised when former students began speaking out about being diagnosed with cancer after attending LQMS.
The district responded saying it would ask the CCR for another study.
The first study, conducted in 2004 by Dr. John Morgan of CCR’s Region 5, focused on teachers and said no cancer cluster exists.
But teachers News Channel 3 spoke with said some of them, who had cancer, weren’t accounted for in that 2004 study and called for more testing. They said Dr. Morgan ignored their diagnoses.
Our investigation in February also found that a now-retired official with the California Department of Public Health, Dr. Raymond Neutra, also recommended more testing at the school site.
The study released today looked at cancer rates in the area (five census tracts) around La Quinta Middle School from 2006 to 2012 and found no unusual number of cancer occurrences.
Dr. Sam Milham, an epidemiologist who specializes in public health, published a peer-reviewed study in 2008 in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine showing exactly the opposite: too many cancers at the school “clustering” in specific rooms.
Milham says today’s study asks the wrong question.
“The study looks at 5 census tracks when it should look at the cancer incidence in former La Quinta Middle School students. The people in the census tracts don’t have the same exposure that the students and teachers had at LQMS. The student cancer incidence will be diluted,” Dr. Milham said.
Milham says the district should have provided the names and birthdays of every former student and staff member to the CCR to prove that cohort is not at risk.
Stay with KESQ and CBS Local 2 as we continue to follow this story.
