Environmental Science

Are New Mexico Environmentalists Lying About Cancer Statistics to Prevent Uranium Mining?
By James Finch

It’s pretty easy to frighten a person. Just tell someone he or she will get cancer from something. Bringing up increased cancer rates caused by what one does, e.g. what one eats, where one lives, what chemicals one ingests and so forth, may be great coffee shop chatter. But, one should get their statistics and research in order before publicly pronouncing judgment on the source of a cancer. If they want to be taken seriously. Environmentalists may have some secret statistics generally unavailable to the public for which they insist uranium ISL (in situ leach mining) projects “might” cause an increase in cancer rates.

We met with Joseph J. Kolb, editor and publisher of “The Gallup Herald,” to hear his thoughts about the proposed uranium ISL projects in Gallup area. During the course of our conversation, Mr. Kolb made his views known. Then, he preserved for posterity those comments in an editorial he published on November 13th. Kolb preached, “Uranium mining on the reservation can and has detrimentally affected Gallup… There have also been stories of the disproportionately high rate of breast, cervical and ovarian cancer here. Researchers continue to study the possible correlation between the 1979 spill (Puerco River valley spill) and its effect on the local cancer rate.”

Kolb confided to us, “I know at least 15 women with breast cancer.” He also claimed to have investigated the cancer statistics through the New Mexico Environmental Department and the American Cancer Society. In his mind, the transplanted ex-New Yorker Kolb blames Gallup’s cancer rate on a uranium tailings spill, which occurred in 1979. At one point during the conversation, Kolb admitted he had previously thought uranium mining might have been good for the local economy because of the royalties such operations would throw off. Along the way, he changed his mind.

It sounds very convincing, and perhaps Kolb’s readers swallowed his editorial rhetoric hook-line-and-sinker. Dr. Charles Wiggins, Director and Principal Investigator for the New Mexico Tumor Registry at the University of New Mexico’s Cancer Research and Treatment Center, didn’t. He scoffed at Kolb’s claims and commented, “A lot of people say these things, but when I go in and investigate I invariably find out they are wrong.” As an epidemiologist, Dr. Wiggins deals with the study of the causes of disease in populations.