No main cause found for tumors near northwest Missouri town

CAMERON, Mo. -- A state investigation into a rise in brain tumor cases around Cameron found no central cause, a state epidemiologist said Thursday.

Sarah Patrick told about 150 people at a meeting in Cameron that the number of brain tumor cases in a four-county area around the town is not statistically higher than the numbers throughout the state.

The number of brain tumor cases are increasing throughout Missouri and the nation, and Cameron is part of that trend, Patrick said.

Patrick said about 70 people in Caldwell, Clinton, Daviess and DeKalb counties met the scientific criteria used by the state during its cancer inquiry. That included 24 with benign tumors since Jan. 1, 2004, and 46 with malignant tumors in the last 11 1/2 years.

"If your perception is that you know more people with brain tumors, and it is changing over time, that perception is right," Patrick said. "That is true nationally, too. Brain tumor reports are going up."

The results came after a five-month state inquiry that began after people who had either been diagnosed or had a relative diagnosed with brain tumors contacted health officials and the news media about what they considered an abnormally high number of brain tumors in and around the northwest Missouri town of about 6,500.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources said in May that its tests had ruled out the town's water as a possible cause of the tumors.

In September, a team from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DNR took samples of tap water from homes in Cameron and the surrounding area.

In August, investigators found high levels of lead and arsenic near a long-closed insulation plant but not enough to threaten health. The business, which is hooked into the city's water system, turned iron into fiber insulation for buildings and dumped residue from the iron product next to the plant and at a quarry three miles away.

Despite the state's finding, at least five lawsuits have been filed against the business, Susquehanna Corp. of Delaware, which owned and operated the Rockwool Industries plant three miles west of Cameron. The plant closed more than 20 years ago and the city leased it to a coat hanger manufacturer from 1992 to 2003.