State health officials confirmed a 12th case of childhood leukemia Friday is part of an unexplained cluster of the disease in Fallon.

The latest case of acute lymphocytic leukemia involves a 19-year-old man whose family moved from Fallon in 1982, said Luana Ritch of the state Health Division. His doctors diagnosed the disease last year, but the state didn’t learn about it until now, she said.

“He was born in Fallon,” Ritch said. “He doesn’t fall into the same 1996-1999 window that the other patients do, but he does fit the broader case definition.”

A suspected 13th case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, was not made part of the cluster. The case involves a Fallon-area boy suffering from aplastic anemia, a disease experts say is unrelated to ALL.

Normally, the rate of ALL cases would be about three in every 100,000 people. With a dozen cases among about 26,000 people living in Churchill County, the rate in the area is about 16 times higher than normal.

None of the Fallon victims has died, although both kinds of bone marrow diseases are life-threatening.

Ritch said the latest confirmed ALL case isn’t more cause for alarm beyond the level that already exists in Fallon.

“It doesn’t mean that whatever might have occurred (to trigger the disease), if something did occur, is still there,” she said.

“It’s possible, because his residence in Fallon was so long ago, that all this will do is add to our knowledge. There’s really nothing that we can definitively say other than this is an associated case.”

Of the ALL victims, who range from toddlers to 19-year-olds, six are boys and six are girls. Three no longer live in Fallon.

Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, called for an emergency $1 million appropriation to speed the search for a cause of the leukemia in Churchill County. De Braga said part of the $1 million in emergency funding could be used for an information campaign, although most of money would be used for extensive testing of the victims and other efforts to pinpoint a cause.

Federal agencies and Nevada’s congressional delegation also are involved in the investigation.

A Legislative committee chaired by de Braga also is recommending investigators consider factors such as high arsenic levels in Fallon-area water, agricultural pesticides, activity at the nearby Fallon Naval Air Station, and possible contamination from nuclear weapons testing in the area in 1960.

ALL — the most common form of childhood leukemia — destroys bone marrow. Its cause is unknown, but suspected triggers include radiation exposure, electromagnetic fields or volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, solvents and fossil fuels. Arsenic has not been linked to acute lymphocytic leukemia.

© 2001 Reno Gazette-Journal