Morbidity and mortality in Los Alamos County, New Mexico

Cancer among Los Alamos County, New Mexico, male residents, all of whom have worked in or have lived within a few kilometers of a major plutonium plant and other nuclear facilities, has been reviewed with respect to mortality between 1950 and 1969 and incidence between 1969 and 1974. A possible excess of neoplasms of the reticuloendothelial system was detected, but the incidence data suggest that this excess, if real, is no longer occurring. Several potentially causal occupational exposures have existed. Higher than expected incidence, currently, of cancers of the colon and rectum appears to be explained better by socioeconomic than occupational factors. Neither mortality nor incidence data suggest an excess of lung cancer in Los Alamos males. Healthy worker and healthy military effects, white ethnicity, and migration are discussed as intervening variables relevant to interpreting mortality data in counties dominated by a single major facility. The utility of county data bases in the study of single local area mortality rates is reviewed.