Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

New Mexico 1.11
(0.98 – 1.25)
Cibola County 1.18*
(0.32 – 3.13)
McKinley County 2.59
(1.79 – 3.65)
New Mexico 1.91
(1.52 – 2.38)
Source: NMTR, 2011
Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
1990-1995 1996-2001 2002-2007
American Indian
1.27
(1.14 – 1.40)
2.54*
(1.26 – 4.73)
1.33
(0.86 – 2.02)
1.61
(1.29 – 1.98)
1.45
(1.33 – 1.58)
1.85*
(0.84 – 3.60)
2.53
(1.89 – 3.36)
1.89
(1.58 – 2.24)
* Note: these rates are considered statistically unstable by the New Mexico Tumor Registry data are fairly unstable due
to low numbers of cancer cases, the data for the American Indian cohort in McKinley County seem to be consistently
higher than rates for the other racial cohorts and geographic regions.
Figure 73 shows rates of kidney cancer for the same three racial cohorts since 1976 in New
Mexico. These data also illustrate the higher rates of kidney cancer in the American Indian
population, especially since 1991.
Figure 73. Kidney cancer incidence rates for males by race, New Mexico, 1976–2000
Some baseline surveys are underway which attempt to characterize levels of kidney disease in the
Navajo Nation, however, finalized data are not available for this study. Preliminary results
suggest that kidney disease is associated with exposure to active uranium mining and proximity to
uranium mining features (Lewis et al., 2011).
DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest 389