Fallon, Nevada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fallon is a city in Churchill County, Nevada, United States. The population was 7,536 at the 2000 census. But as of 2006 the population of Fallon, Nevada was 8,299 [1]. It is the county seat of Churchill CountyGR6 and is located in the Lahontan Valley.
Fallon is primarily an agricultural community. Although the area is arid, approximately 50,000 acres (200 km²) of farmland are irrigated with water supplied by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District. The principal crop is alfalfa. Fallon Heart O' Gold cantaloupes were once distributed throughout the nation, but are now mostly grown for local consumption. Naval Air Station Fallon also provides a significant employment.
U.S. Route 50 is the main road through town. Fallon is one of the westernmost cities on the Loneliest Road in America, the stretch of Route 50 through Nevada famed for its remoteness. Eastbound travelers must go 110 miles to find the next town, Austin, Nevada.
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[edit] Geography
Fallon is located at (39.472792, -118.778826)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.9 km² (3.1 mi²). 7.9 km² (3.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.65%) is water.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 7,536 people, 3,004 households, and 1,877 families residing in the city. The population density was 954.0/km² (2,474.1/mi²). There were 3,336 housing units at an average density of 422.3/km² (1,095.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 81.32% White, 2.04% African American, 3.40% Native American, 5.00% Asian, 0.37% Pacific Islander, 3.40% from other races, and 4.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.89% of the population.
There were 3,004 households out of which 35.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.7% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.5% were non-families. 30.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.06.
In the city the population was spread out with 28.4% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $35,935, and the median income for a family was $41,433. Males had a median income of $35,356 versus $22,818 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,919. About 9.5% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.6% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Cancer Cluster
Fallon is also the epicenter of a noted pediatric cancer cluster.
Over a three-year period, 11 cases of childhood leukemia were diagnosed in rural Churchill County, Nevada: population 23,982. Five other cases occurred during roughly the same time period among children who had previously lived in the county. Analysis by Steinmaus, et al. suggested that such a geographic cluster would occur by chance alone in the United States every 22,000 years (2004). The proximity of a naval air station increased suspicions that an environmental exposure might be responsible for the unique temporal and spatial juxtaposition of leukemia diagnoses. (Subsequent data collection found no increase in childhood leukemia rates in other rural counties with military aviation facilities and only three of the 16 total cases occurred among children of military families.) It is also crucial to note that some of the diagnoses occurred after health officials began investigated the possibility of an environmental cause (Steinmaus 2004).
Numerous hypotheses were proposed and later discarded for lack of evidence. Some theories (benzene from jet fuel, for instance) have a proven role in the pathogenesis of leukemia but increased exposure in cases over controls could not be confirmed. Additionally, benzene exposures were not at the level occupationally known to cause acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and in Churchill County, all except for one case were acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Others, such as arsenic in drinking water, were found at levels two times higher than outside Churchill County; however, arsenic has never been shown definitively to cause leukemia (Steinmaus 2004).
Population mixing due to the influx and efflux of military personnel and the subsequent spread of an infectious agent offered a different etiology for the leukemia cluster. In other studies, a recent large influx corresponded to an increase in the rates of leukemia; however, in the Fallon cluster, the time period for large-scale population mixing did not uniquely correlate with the three-year window of increased leukemia diagnoses (Steinmaus 2004). Unlike other hematopoietic cancers such as Burkitt lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma, a specific viral etiology has not been proposed for the acute leukemias. This highlights the difficulties of linking cancer with a causative agent (and therefore, of stimulating changes in policy): tumorigenesis is an incompletely understood process taking months or years to present itself. Prenatal exposures may even be risk factors. Although leukemia is most common type of childhood cancer, it is still quite rare, with an incidence of approximately three per 100,000.
[edit] Grimes Point
Seven miles east of Fallon, adjacent to Highway 50, is the Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail. The Trail features rocks with carvings as much as eight thousand years old, done by native peoples who were drawn to the shores of ancient Lake Lahontan. The Trail is approximately one-half mile long on a level path. Free brochures explaining the native art are available.
[edit] Sister Cities
[edit] References
- Steinmaus C, Lu M, Todd RL, Smith AH. Probability estimates for the unique childhood leukemia cluster in Fallon, Nevada, and risks near other U.S. military aviation facilities. Environmental Health Perspectives. 112(6): 766-771. May 2004.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Related stories in the Reno Gazette-Journal: http://www.rgj.com/extra/cancer.php
- Grimes Point web page, with pictures of the carvings
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
