Dr. Wiggins presented us with the most recent report of cancers among New Mexico American Indian females. The incident rate, between 1998 and 2002, was 48 deaths per 100,000. The breast cancer death rate, throughout New Mexico during the same time frame, was 110 per 100,000. In the Mountain States, comprising Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico, that rate rose to 119.4. For the entire Western United States, the death rate stood at 128.8, about the range for the national average of 124.9. That was 260 percent higher than the breast cancer rate for the American Indians in New Mexico, a group covered in this report. Hispanic women in New Mexico died from breast cancer at more than double that rate, during that time frame.

A frequent lament about uranium mining, found in the anti-nuclear propaganda, is the absolutely amazing high rate of lung cancer deaths suffered by the Navajo. Having been influenced by that party line, the Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley Jr. banned uranium on the reservation last April. Statistics provided by Dr. Wiggins demonstrate that the American Indian in New Mexico has one of the lowest lung cancer rates in the United States. Utah, a state with the lowest incidence of lung cancer deaths, has a rate more than 150 percent higher. Nationwide lung cancer death rates are more than 300 percent higher. White New Mexicans are more likely to die from lung cancer at a rate nearly four times higher than American Indians.

Dr. Wiggins minimized the impact of uranium contamination or ionizing radiation as the logic behind specific cancers. For example, when questioned about “increasing breast cancer rates,” he cited changes in a woman’s fertility (for example, birth control pills) and obesity as the main drivers. Wiggins said, “Higher breast cancer incidence occurs in Long Island (New York) or Marin County (California) because higher breast cancer rates were found mainly among rich, white people, not in Gallup, New Mexico.

According to actual University of New Mexico data, American Indian cancer statistics are lower than those for Anglos and Hispanics. Dr. Wiggins explained, “Of the 50,000 to 60,000 Navajos living in New Mexico, Navajos have about half the rate of cancer compared to Anglos and half the risk of developing cancer.” Dr. Wiggins also noted that the Laguna Pueblo Indians living near the former Jackpile uranium mine have lower cancer rates compared to the rest of New Mexico. Dr. Wiggins agreed that the rate of kidney cancers had increased a bit, but explained it was caused by increased diabetes and obesity, not from another source.