[ RadSafe ] Mangano's New Study

[stewart farber]

I've commented before that Mangano is a 2nd generation Sternglass  wannabe. 
The importance of Mangano learning his 'craft' over  the past five or so 
years at Sternglass' elbow [up until recently Sternglass was still working 
with Mangano and the Tooth Fairy Project --I'm not sure of the current 
connection, if any,  between Sternglass and Mangano] is that the National 
Academy of Sciences  and the Health Physics Society and other professional 
societies around 1980 in one of the BEIR [Biological Effects of Ionizing 
Radiation] Consensus Reports pointed out that Sternglass was guilty in all 
of his supposed studies and claims of only selecting data which supported 
any specific hypothesis he suggested, and ignoring data which did not. This 
is not the way a scientist approaches testing a hypothesis and shows the 
person behaving in such a manner is a propagandist -- not a responsible 
scientist.

I recall seeing a good paper by Andy Hull, published in some IAEA 
publication back in the late 1970s after Andy's presentation at an 
international meeting sponsored by the UN.  Andy Hull of Brookhaven National 
Lab gave examples of how for any given nuclear plant selected for a 
Sternglass "study" to show a supposed health detriment, Sternglass would 
move a window [a slice or duration] of time along for that specific reactor 
until he found a time when some cancer rate went up for that brief period.

Sternglass would then take his arbitrary slice of time and move it along for 
the given plant until some radioactive release was elevated at the 
particular reactor and then claim that the increase in cancer rate [in a 
small population of people based on a few cases in total] in that  brief 
interval of time caused the "cancer increase".   Dose did not matter. 
Induction period did not matter. Whether cancer rates went down for some 
equivalent intervals of time when plant releases went up did not matter. The 
point [and beauty of this antinuke approach] is a real increase in cancer 
rate over some meaningful period of time [a longer duration at a given 
reactor] isn't even necessary!!

It is only necessary that some increase in detriment occur over a brief 
interval of time, even when the cancer rate when averaged out over a longer 
period of time shows no increase around the given reactor. Elegant in its 
simplicity and in its deceipt.

Sometimes the effect claimed by the antinuke can be immediate. Mangano and 
some of his "associates" have made some absurd claims that a shutdown in a 
given reactor was followed by an immediate reduction in cancer rates around 
a given reactor.

Mangano will someday be as debunked by professional organizations as 
Sternglass was 30 years ago. However, the criticism by these professional 
organizations will never get the press that the original claims received, 
because professional societies are not very good at manipulating the public, 
the media, or legislators.

Unfortunately, as Mark Twain observed:

A lie can race its way around the world while truth is still tying its 
shoes.

The deceptions by Mangano, and others connected with the Tooth Fairy 
Project, could be easily debunked by any scientist with a basic 
understanding of epidemiology, environmental radiation from nuclear plants, 
and radiation bioeffects willing to spend enough time to make the effort. 
Unfortunately, nuclear organizations and government agencies do not 
generally commit even the minimal resources needed to allow a credible, 
capable scientist to do the necessary technical analysis of the false 
claims.

After completing any such analysis debunking their critics, these same 
nuclear industry organizations would likely be unable, or unwilling, to act 
to get their analysis before the public for fear of actively joining in a 
fight that is in the interests of the organization sponsoring the vital 
critique.  Unfortunate, and ultimately part of the reason the nuclear power 
industry will likely never get as far as they hope with many of their future 
nuclear power plant projects. A regrettable situation and ultimately tragic 
considering the money wasted on delayed and dead ended projects, and the 
effects of the alternate forms of power generation with great environmental 
impacts which will be pursued, or the effects of not having enough energy 
when and where it is needed.

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Consulting Scientist
Farber Technical Services
[203] 441-8433 [office]
email: radproject at sbcglobal.net

===================================
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Otto Raabe" <ograabe at ucdavis.edu>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 9:51 PM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Mangano's New Study


> At 07:04 PM 6/25/2007, Steven Dapra wrote:
>>         Our Tooth Fairy Project (TFP) friend Joseph Mangano is the author 
>> of the study alleging higher cancer rates in the counties around the 
>> Vogtle reactor.
> *******************************
> Remember, the standard procedure is to find a reactor for which some 
> cancer rates have gone up and claim that the reactor was responsible. Now 
> we can assume that for the 103 power reactors in the U.S. that at least a 
> few are in areas where cancer rates have gone up, maybe even 
> significantly, for unknown reasons that have no relation to any reactor. 
> But, then you selectively publish about this one or more reactors and 
> ignore all those for which local cancer rates went down! Them you imply 
> that all resactor causes cancer!
>
> This doesn't take much effort or time. All you need is some eager young 
> volunteers who believe that reactors are evil, and have them search the 
> available cancer records around all 103 reactors until you find one or 
> more that show cancer rate increases, then you use the usual manuscript 
> template with these data, and you have a new publication that you can send 
> to a reporter looking for a story.
>
> Otto
>
> Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> Center for Health & the Environment
> University of California
> One Shields Avenue
> Davis, CA 95616
> E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
> Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140

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