[ RadSafe ] Mangano's New Study

[Jenkins, Ken A.]

Mangano has moved on to other "targets" now.

Ken Jenkins
Health Physics
Vogtle Electric Generating Plant
Waynesboro, GA

Cancer rate near Vogtle questioned
By Tom Corwin | Staff Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007
WAYNESBORO, Ga. - A North Carolina environmental group unveiled a study
Wednesday that showed significantly higher cancer deaths in the counties
surrounding the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant. 
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its allies say that's
all the more reason to oppose adding more reactors there. But the study
author stopped short of saying the cancers are caused by radiation and
not other factors.
Vogtle fired up two reactors in the late 1980s, and the Southern Co. is
seeking regulatory approval to start up new units there. The Blue Ridge
group opposes that move and commissioned the cancer death study late
last year. 
It found that since the reactors went online there has been a 25 percent
increase in the cancer death rate in Burke County, while nationally the
death rate has declined by 4 percent, said Louis Zeller, nuclear
campaign coordinator for the group.
"There is an increase in Burke County that goes contrary to what is
happening in the rest of the country," he said. 
An Augusta Chronicle analysis of data from the Georgia Division of
Public Health found a cancer death rate of 225 per 100,000, slightly
below the group's rate of 231, but data for three years were not
available. The U.S. cancer death rate is slightly below Burke's, at 207,
and Georgia's was slightly below that for the same period, at 204. 
Study author Joseph J. Mangano, the executive director of the New York
City-based Radiation and Public Health Project, noted the area's higher
rates of poverty and higher percentage of minorities, who traditionally
have suffered higher death rates from many cancers.
"My point is this area has always been poor and high-minority," he said
in a phone interview from New Jersey. "If you look at the period before
Vogtle began operating, some of the death rates are actually low. The
Burke County death rate was well below the U.S. And afterwards it was
high. One would have to look at it further, but it's not apparent that
the poverty status changed drastically in Burke County from the late
'80s until now."
The Chronicle analysis also noted higher cancer death rates than Burke's
in some surrounding counties, such as Wilkes.
"The more-populated counties and the less-populated counties, there are
some differences," Mr. Zeller said. "But the overall trend is very
plain. And that is that cancer deaths have increased, particularly as
compared with the overall trend in the United States going down."
But Mr. Mangano said the report does not provide proof that radiation,
whose emissions had increased, is the culprit.
"This report is really just a beginning, but it does raise, I believe,
serious questions that should be answered," he said.
Georgia Power spokeswoman Carol Boatright said the company would review
the report, but government studies around nuclear plants found no cancer
link. 
Judy Stocker, of Keysville, a member of the Women's Action of New
Directions group, said the report has spurred her to try to stop any
expansion of the plant.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin at augustachronicle.com.