[ RadSafe ] People with an agenda can exploit the frailties and uncertainties of epidemiological studies.
parthasarathy k s
ksparth at yahoo.co.uk
Tue Dec 6 22:15:38 CST 2005
Dear Mr Stewart Farber,
Claims such as the one made by Mangano et. al are accepted by lay people primarily because they do not have knowledge about fall out etc. People with hidden agenda are a committed lot. They will exploit the frailtiesand uncertainties inherent in epidemiological studies ruthlessly and to some extent irrationally to their advantage. Let me assure you that it is a very frustrating experience.
Your detailed note on variation of weapons fall out will convince any one. But people conditioned by fear will be less amenable to reasoning. Still we have to try.
Regards
K.S.Parthasarathy
farbersa at optonline.net wrote:
Hi all,
The most recent post by Norm Cohen relates to claims by Mangano, et. al that have nothing to do with baby teeth and Sr-90. Mangano is merely using the discredited techniques of Sternglass of using a narrow window of time and picking a time period of some health statistic to compare to another narrow window of time to claim some effect. Mangano is merely a Sternglass wannabe whose work fails on a first order analysis.
Regarding the supposed effects of Sr-90 from nuclear plants that they claim to measuring in baby teeth, we know that 99++% of all Sr-90 in the environment near any nuclear plant is from open air testing of nuclear weapons. The variations in Sr-90 and Cs-137 in the environment from nuclear bomb test fallout are so large as to dwarf any trivial releases of these isotopes from any given nuclear plant.
I've discussed this point before in earlier posts to Radsafe related to Cs-137 in woodash varying from 300 pCi/kg of ash in CA to 30,000 pCi/kg of wood ash from northern FL, no where near a nuclear plant. Sr-90 deposition in various parts of the country would have varied by similar amounts since there is a certain average ratio of Sr-90/Cs-137 in weapon's test fallout. Despite the claims of the TFP, Mangano, and Sternglass, their aggegate of work irregardless of the technique for measurements of Sr-90 in baby teeth, is nothing more than agenda science, the conclusions of which were determined before the first tooth was ever analyzed.
Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
The Prometheus Group, LLC
203 367-0791
----- Original Message -----
From: "Baratta, Edmond J"
Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2005 8:47 am
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Seabrook Nukes and cancers: TFP
> I'm always amazed how data is obtained from 'baby' teeth. What
> 'low-level'
> method is used to for the deter minion of Strontium-90. The U.S.
> Environmental Protection Agency had listed as the limits of
> detection for
> Strontium-90 as 2 pCi/kg (0.074 Bq/kg). Certainly the amount of
> sample used
> must be very small. Do they combine a large amount of teeth or
> are they
> from individual teeth? I would be interested in knowing more
> about this
> method.
>
>
> Edmond J. Baratta
> Radiation Safety Officer
> Tel. No. 781-729-5700 x 728
> Fax: 781-729-3593
>
> The above represent my thoughts and not that of my agency.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]
> On Behalf
> Of Norm Cohen
> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 6:07 PM
> To: Know_Nukes at yahoogroups.com; Radsafe
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Seabrook Nukes and cancers: TFP
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Friends: This is an article that appeared in the Hampton
> Union on
> Friday Dec. 2. The paper is located in Hampton Beach NH, near the
> Seabrooknuclear power plant.
>
>
>
>
> Study: children's cancer up ... 12/02/2005
> Hampton Union
> Date: 12/02/2005 Section: news Page: a1
> Word Count: 633 word
>
>
> Study: children's cancer up
> N-plant, CDC say they have no knowledge of report
> By Susan Morse smorse at seacoastonline.com
> SEABROOK - Childhood cancer deaths in the last two decades
> increased by 19
> percent in communities surrounding Seabrook Station, according to
> the group
> awarding the nuclear power plant a Dirty Dozen award on Tuesday.
> In a released statement, Paul Schramski of the Toxics Action
> Center in
> Massachusetts said the information came from a study by the Center for
> Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.
> However, neither CDC spokeswoman Susan Asher nor Seabrook Station
> spokesman Al Griffith had any knowledge of such a study, they said.
> Further information released by Schramski said the research was
> done by
> Joseph Mangano, an epidemiologist with a master's degree in public
> healthwho is the national coordinator for the Radiation and Public
> Health Project.
> Its Web site says the project is "a nonprofit educational and
> scientificorganization, established by scientists and physicians
> dedicated to
> understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear
> radiation and
> public health."
> Mangano, reached at his office in Norristown, Pa., on
> Wednesday, said he
> used CDC statistics in his study. Anyone can access the same
> information at
> wonder.cdc.gov, he said.
> Infant death rates in four counties surrounding Seabrook Station
> increased by 4 percent from the two years prior to the plant going
> on line
> in 1989, to two years after, he said.
> The childhood cancer death rate increased by 19 percent between
> 1981 and
> 2002, he said.
> The CDC's Asher said on Wednesday that the federal center does
> releasestatistics on race, gender, age, and how people died.
> She could not confirm the results obtained by Mangano.
> The CDC does look into the veracity of any study, she said,
> when it gets
> a request to do so.
> "The CDC gets involved when it gets a petition to get
> involved," she
> said. "We just don't go out on our own. It can come from anyone."
> "We've never had a request to go out to the Seabrook place,"
> Asher said.
> Mangano said the impetus for his research came from Guy
> Chichester, a Rye
> resident who co-founded the Clamshell Alliance. The alliance
> opposed the
> building of the Seabrook plant.
> Mangano and Chichester are also working on a study to determine
> the level
> of strontium 90 found in baby teeth. Strontium 90 is one component of
> ionized radiation and is like calcium in that it heads for teeth
> and bone,
> said Mangano.
> So far Mangano has gathered 4,500 teeth nationwide. He expects
> to release
> his results in 2006.
> Of his cancer study, Mangano admits factors other than the
> nuclear power
> plant may play a role in the increased statistics.
> Similar studies of cancer rates in areas surrounding other
> nuclear power
> plants have yielded similar results, he said.
> "Seabrook should be put in a list of factors," he said. "The
> generaltrend is, open a plant, the rate goes up, close a plant the
> rate goes down."
> Mangano looked at infant death rates for the years 1987 to
> 1988, and
> after the plant started operating, from 1989 to 1990, in four
> counties near
> Seabrook Station: Essex County in Massachusetts; Rockingham County;
> Strafford County; and York County in Maine.
> "In the four-county area it went up by 4 percent," he said. "In
> the rest
> of the three-state area - Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine -
> it was
> down 7 percent. In the rest of the U.S. it was down by 5 percent."
> He then looked at long-term changes in the childhood cancer
> death rate,
> of children dying before the age of 15 in the same four counties.
> Mangano compared the CDC statistics for the years 1981 through
> 1989 and
> 1990 through 2002.
> "The change in the rates increased by 19 percent," he said.
> "Elsewhere in
> the three states it was down by 23 percent and in the U.S., down 26
> percent."
> The Radiation and Public Health Project is not an advocate
> organization,he said.
>
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