While state health officials investigate reports of high numbers of cancers in Sugar Creek, federal health officials are interested in whether another disease, multiple sclerosis, might be related to pollution in the city.The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has reports of up to 10 MS cases in Sugar Creek, although it has yet to confirm the cases.
There are an estimated 400,000 MS cases in the United States.
With a U.S. population of about 268 million, that comes to a rate of one MS case per 670 residents.Sugar Creek's population is about 4,000, so 10 cases there represent a rate of one MS case per 400 residents.
In coming weeks, Denise Jordan-Izaguirre of the agency's local office will try to gather and confirm more reports of MS cases in Sugar Creek.A formal investigation might begin if a high number of cases is confirmed, she said.
Most questions about pollution in Sugar Creek focus on the former Amoco Oil Co. refinery site, where federal and state regulators have confirmed that groundwater polluted by petroleum products, benzene and other contaminants has migrated below residential property.
Amoco officials have said that they know of no ill health effects related to the former refinery site.An Amoco spokesman in Kansas City declined Friday to comment on the MS inquiry because of an upcoming trial in Jackson County.
In that case, two families are suing Amoco, saying the values of their properties near the former refinery have fallen because of Amoco's handling of hazardous materials.The plaintiffs are not pursuing health-related claims.
Air sampling by state regulators and Amoco suggests some Sugar Creek residents are being exposed to low levels of chemicals, said Jordan-Izaguirre, whose health agency is an arm of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those chemical levels are not high enough to present any acute or immediate danger, she said.But many Sugar Creek residents have lived for decades near the refinery, raising concern that they already have been exposed for years to the contaminants, Jordan-Izaguirre said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to take new samples of the air in the basements of some homes near the site of the former refinery and in the air outside those homes, said Bob Aston, who oversees the site's cleanup for the EPA.
The EPA also has asked Amoco to consider new clean-up efforts at the site, such as halting some seepage of pollutants into the stream for which the town is named - Sugar Creek.
Multiple sclerosis is a potentially debilitating disease that affects the brain and the spinal cord.Its cause is unknown.
Jordan-Izaguirre's agency, established to study the health impacts of hazardous waste sites, recently expressed interest in studying whether there might be a possible link between MS and environmental pollutants.
Jordan-Izaguirre intended to announce her agency's interest in an MS study in Sugar Creek at a community meeting scheduled next week.
City officials canceled the meeting after a state circuit judge expressed concern about publicity related to the Amoco site.
Jordan-Izaguirre said she first began to wonder about MS in Sugar Creek when she learned that three unrelated people had been diagnosed with MS.
They had all lived for some time in the same home near the former refinery site.
In October the Missouri Department of Health announced that it would attempt to confirm whether there was an excess number of cancer cases in Sugar Creek.The Health Department's findings should be released in March, state officials said this week.
In addition, Kansas City physician Robert Morantz and John Neuberger, an associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, have proposed a $ 30,000 study of the incidence of brain cancer in Sugar Creek.
The Jackson County Legislature recently appropriated $ 17,000 to begin that study.
- To reach Michael Mansur, environment writer for The Star, call (816) 234-4433 or send e-mail to mmansur@kcstar.com
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