NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Feb. 23, 2001

Officials of the ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis] Association South Texas chapter were concerned that the incidence of the disease at the base seemed to be higher than normal, which is one or two cases per 100,000 population each year in the United States.

Mary Klenke, patient services director for the ALS South Texas Chapter, said her office received scores of calls from former and current workers at Kelly since the San Antonio Express-News reported on a suspected link between ALS and the military base last year.

"We feel that the number is higher than the incident rate in the United States," she said.

Kelly, an Air Force maintenance facility with about 25,000 workers, is scheduled to be shut in July under a 1995 order from the Base Closing and Realignment Commission. There have been allegations about leaks and pollution over the years at the base, one of the nation's oldest.

Officials declined Wednesday to speculate whether there might be any connection between the suspected ALA cluster at the base and the alleged health dangers.

The South Texas ALS chapter has provided 66 completed questionnaires with information about possible Kelly ALS cases to Air Force officials, and they will be incorporated in the study announced Wednesday by Air Force officials.

"These people worked at Kelly between 1938 and 2000. Now our job is to determine where at Kelly they worked, and what type of jobs they performed," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Cox of the Air Force Institute for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health Risk Analysis.

ALS is a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It leads to loss of motor functions, paralysis and dementia.

"This doesn't reflect an immediate health hazard that people should be worried or concerned about," Cox said.

The local ALS group is awaiting questionnaires from 15 more potential cases.

The Air Force will be joined in the study by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and the Texas Department of Health.

The Air Force said it was still trying to gather information to determine whether the cases of ALS were connected to Kelly and said it hopes to publish its findings later this year.

The base has long been the target of allegations that materials stored at the base, from jet fuel to nuclear weapons, caused health problems.

A San Antonio group claims jet fuel stored at Kelly during the Cold War seeped into the groundwater and is responsible for elevated levels of cancer and other diseases in the surrounding community. Earlier this year, the Department of Energy identified Kelly's Medina Base annex as one of several sites where civilian workers were exposed to radiation in nuclear weapons facilities 40 years ago.

According to the ALS Association, similar localized outbreaks of the disease, while rare, are not unknown. More than 5,000 Americans are diagnosed with ALS each year. Of the 270 million people in the nation today, more than 300,000 will die from ALS, experts said.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.