Families Against Cancer & Toxics

FACT: The incidence of childhood leukemia in industrialized nations has been rising approximately 1% per year for more than 30 years.

FACT: Sierra Vista has more than 3 times the expected rate of childhood leukemia in kids younger than 14.

FACT: Keeping our children healthy requires action by parents, public health officials, and the community.

Families Against Cancer & Toxics (FACT) presented two public forums—in Sierra Vista on September 18 and in Tucson on September 19—to raise awareness of the skyrocketing childhood cancer incidence, and the need for better health tracking, biomonitoring, and disease prevention.

Each forum began with a screening of the documentary Fallon, NV: Deadly Oasis. Since 1999, sixteen children have been diagnosed with leukemia in Fallon, a rural Nevada town with a population of 8,000. The film probes the issue of a “cancer cluster” through the eyes of the children and families who challenge medical, government, and military experts, desperate for answers as to what has made the children sick.

A panel discussion followed the screening; the panelists focused on the Sierra Vista leukemia cluster investigation and answered questions from the audience. Speakers included: Dr. Diana Carper, Cochise County Department of Health; Dr. Mark Witten, Toxicologist, University of Arizona; Matt Warneke, father of a child with leukemia and resident of both Fallon, NV and Sierra Vista, AZ ; Terry Dyer, military base safety advocate, Camp Lejeune, NC; Amie Williams, filmmaker who made Fallon, NV: Deadly Oasis; Anna Dillingham, Trust for America's Health, Washington, DC; moderated by Terry Nordbrock, mother of a child with leukemia and co-founder of FACT.

In conjunction with the community forum, FACT hosted a roundtable conference for childhood leukemia cluster advocates from across the nation, who discussed strategies to provide all our children with a clean and healthy environment.

This community forum was supported by a grant from Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.

Related media articles:

The Cancer Battle Tucson Weekly, 9/16/04

Group seeks improved discussion on cancer The Sierra Vista Herald, 9/19/04

Cancer cluster communities unite KVOA TV Channel 4, 9/19/04

Cancer group's forum brings concerned residents together The Sierra Vista Herald, 9/20/04

Group Keeps Us TalkingSierra Vista Herald editorial, 9/21/04