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Non-smokers with lung cancer fare better

HOUSTON, April 24 (UPI) -- Lung-cancer patients who never smoked have better survival rates and respond better to chemotherapy than current or former smokers, says a U.S. study.

Dr. Anne S. Tsao, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, reviewed the medical records of 1,370 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with chemotherapy or chemo-radiation to determine an association between smoking and treatment response and survival.

The researchers found that patients who never smoked had a better response to the chemotherapy; developed less disease progression during therapy; and showed improved survival over former and current smokers.

They say the finding may be due to non-smokers having less genetic damage compared to smokers, being less likely to have other ailments that would affect survival and having better preserved lung function.

"Continued efforts at preventing smoking initiation are a critical public health issue and emphasize the need for chemoprevention for smokers and primary-prevention protocols to prevent smoking," the authors write in the June 1 issue of Cancer.

Longmont seeks federal funds for sugar factory cleanup

Longmont officials are seeking $3.5 million in federal money to assess and clean up the sugar mill. Officials want to turn the site into a transit-oriented village served by RTD passenger rail.

By Trevor Hughes
For the Reporter-Herald

4/29/2006 - LONGMONT — The Great Western sugar factory on Longmont’s eastern edge, long eyed as a transit village that would help spark a train-based renaissance in the city, is contaminated with asbestos, PCBs and other chemicals and may cost $3.5 million to clean up. That’s money neither Longmont, the private owner of the land nor the Regional Transportation District has or is willing to spend, so city leaders are asking federal taxpayers to pick up the tab.

In letters being sent to Colorado’s congressional delegation, Longmont’s leaders are asking the federal government to give them the estimated $3.5 million they think it will cost to assess and clean up the sugar plant just north of Colorado 119.

That money could come from sources such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to the city’s request, contaminants range from asbestos insulation to PCBs to 300 barrels of “liquid byproduct” from sugar manufacture.

The specific kinds and amounts of contaminants would be investigated with the federal money, and then removed or rendered safe if the city received funding.

“The property for which we are asking assistance is the historic former home of the Great Western sugar factory, currently up for sale and ripe for development,” Mayor Julia Pirnack wrote in letters to the state’s congressional delegation.

“However, largely due to high contaminant mitigation costs, this property has sat for over 20 years, gradually deteriorating. It is essential that we can assist the private sector to achieve the full beneficial use of this property for many reasons.”

Longmont hopes to use the sugar factory to anchor passenger rail service to Denver through Boulder. Some boosters also hope to eventually extend the service north to Fort Collins or Greeley.

Current supporters, including Pirnack, hope to see the sugar factory transformed into a comprehensive development complete with apartments, shops, offices and perhaps even a permanent campus for Front Range Community College.

All that will cost millions of dollars, both to acquire and assemble the property necessary, and to prepare it for redevelopment.

The city has previously applied for federal “brownfields” funding, which can be loans or grants given to redevelop a contaminated property, as opposed to bulldozing an untouched “green field.”

Redeveloping and reusing existing properties is generally considered a good way to avoid contributing to sprawl, according to urban planners.

City officials said the previous application for brownfields funding for the sugar mill site was rejected because the primary contaminant at the factory is asbestos.

However, in letters to Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, Pirnack noted the presence of PCBs, now-banned chemicals commonly used as coolants in electrical equipment.

The city has asked that Salazar and Allard, along with U.S. Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and Mark Udall, seek a federal appropriation to pay for the cleanup.