Weeks before he died, Dawson Creek Mayor Calvin Kruk, right, received an award from B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell last month. Kruk's lung cancer was one of a cluster of mysterious cases in the northern community. (Submitted by Greg Dickson)

The recent death of the mayor of Dawson Creek has raised concerns about a cluster of similar lung cancer cases in the northern B.C. community.

Mayor Calvin Kruk was 43 when he was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer less than two months ago. He died on Sunday, leaving behind a wife and 12-year-old son.

Kruk's diagnosis was one of a cluster of lung cancers recently detected in the area, a phenomenon that caught his doctor's attention.

"It's not a severe, wild statistic, but it's just a slight increase in what I'm used to. I'm alerted to it. I'm just thinking, 'Well, that's pretty strange,' " Dr. Harry Neveling said.

Dawson Creek doctors told CBC News they've seen at least 14 similar cases in the past three months, and some, like Kruk's, have been extremely aggressive.

B.C. Cancer Agency statistics indicate that lung cancer rates for a town of 11,000 people should average 13 cases per year.

Sour gas worries residents, but doctors blame smoking

For years, residents of the area have expressed concerns about possible health impacts from the sour gas industry operating in the area. Sour gas is a term used to describe natural gas containing hydrogen sulphide, a toxic, flammable substance.

Of particular concern are the fumes from waste gas, which is burned off, or flared, at facilities across the region.

Those concerns were highlighted last week when two bombs were planted next to sour-gas pipelines. Just days before, threatening letters had been sent to a local newspaper demanding the industry shut down.

But studies done in Alberta, which also has a large sour-gas industry, have dismissed the oil and gas sector as a factor in cancer rates.

The Northern Health Authority's chief medical officer, David Bowering, said the region's extremely high smoking rate is likely to blame for any spike in cancer rates.

"Northerners are at increased risk of lung cancer in general," Bowering said. "We know that the majority of our excess mortality is … attributable to excess smoking."

All of the people who were recently diagnosed with lung cancer were smokers.

Neveling said it's still an unusually high number of diagnoses, and he wants public heath experts to investigate the spike.

"I have actually told the public health sector and said it is worthwhile looking into this. We should consider, you know, for whatever it's worth to them, they should monitor these things," Neveling said.

Bowering said he will ask the B.C. and Alberta cancer agencies to investigate the cluster of cancer cases, but since smoking is such a significant factor, it will be difficult to determine whether there might be any other cause.

"If we could deal with the smoking, then maybe some of these less significant issues [other environmental contaminants] could be teased out. But at the moment, smoking just overwhelms the situation," Bowering said.