Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Despite having average prevalence rates of asthma, the hospital admission rates for asthma in
McKinley County are high compared to the State. Between 2004 and 2006 the hospital admission
rates for asthma for Cibola and McKinley Counties were 19.4 and 38.2 per 10,000 population,
respectively. This compares to a State rate of 21.7 per 10,000.
COPD is the coexistence of two diseases: chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Unlike asthma,
COPD is harder to treat and gets progressively worse over time. COPD is highly associated with
smoking and other environmental irritants. Rates of hospitalization for COPD in Cibola and
McKinley Counties are presented in table 82.
Table 82. Hospital admission rates for COPD in Cibola and McKinley Counties, per 10,000
population, 1999-2009
Cibola County
(95% CI)
Hospital admissions 1.54
(1.39 – 1.69)
Source: NMDH, 2011a
Abbreviations: CI – confidence interval
Kidney Disease
McKinley County
(95% CI)
1.44
(1.34 – 1.55)
New Mexico
(95% CI)
1.45
(1.36 – 1.53)
Ingestion of uranium has been shown to cause kidney toxicity in humans (ATSDR, 2011).
Exposure to uranium and the subsequent health impacts is a major concern of government
agencies in the ROI (NMDH, 2011f; USEPA, 2011f; USEPA, 2008; Toth et al., 2003) and is a
concern of some people in the study area (USFS, 2011b).
Rates of kidney cancer are reported by the New Mexico Tumor Registry for three racial cohorts.
Incidence rates of kidney cancer over the last 20 years are reported in table 83.
Table 83. Rates of kidney cancer in the Cibola and McKinley Counties, per 10,000
population, 1995-2007
Cibola County 1.44*
(0.55 – 3.68)
McKinley County 1.06*
(0.31 – 2.82)
New Mexico 0.9
(0.86 – 1.03)
Hispanic
Cibola County 1.10*
(0.19 – 3.94)
McKinley County 0.98*
(0.20 – 3.46)
1990-1995 1996-2001 2002-2007
Non-Hispanic White
1.35*
(0.49 – 3.29)
1.33*
(0.56 – 2.85)
1.06
(0.98 – 1.15)
1.20*
(0.35 – 3.41)
2.53*
(1.11 – 5.37)
1.74*
(0.81 – 3.66)
0.57*
(0.15 – 1.95)
1.05
(0.98 – 1.13)
2.18*
(1.02 – 4.27)
0.20*
(0.01 – 1.42)
388 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest