[ RadSafe ] Mangano's New Study

[Steven Dapra]

June 25

         More than a few comments on this Augusta (GA) Chronicle article.

         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.  One would think the TFP alone would keep him more than busy.  How 
does he find the time to write all this anti-nuclear propaganda?  He must 
be on the go 18 hours a day.

         The reactors went on line in the late 1980s --- presumably 1988 or 
1989.  They haven’t been running for 20 years.  It’s my understanding that 
the typical minimum latency period for hard tumors is 20 years.  Even if 
the two reactors were causing the cancers (note my use of the subjunctive) 
they haven’t been running long enough to do so.  (I know that sentence is 
contradictory, but you get my point.)

         In light of the attention that leukemias typically receive in 
popular press articles about cancers, since the article says nothing about 
leukemias I think it is reasonable to assume that none of the cancers are 
leukemias.  That leaves us with hard tumors and a 20 year latency 
period.  Note that the article does not specify any of the cancer types.  I 
find this a little peculiar.  It’s almost as though the writer deliberately 
glossed over this point.

         We are told that the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League 
(BREDL) commissioned the cancer study “late last year.”  That would mean 
Mangano, and perhaps some assistants, worked on their study for about eight 
months.  Is that long enough to do an adequate analysis of the germane 
cancer statistics?

         This link is to the Nuclear Energy Institute’s blog with an 
article on the BREDL report.  The blog has two links to the report, one to 
the report, and one to another report about childhood mortality.  They are 
both PDF links.  < http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/>

         This link is to television station WRDW’s news story on the BREDL 
report.  It’s a short and superficial report, and contains the Georgia 
Power link (below).  The station identifies Judy Stocker as a mere 
“resident” who wants to put people before profits.  (Such a clever and 
versatile cliché.)  See the last paragraph of the Chronicle article for a 
more informative description of Stocker.  She is from Keysville, GA, but my 
Georgia map does not have a listing for Keysville in its index, so I 
suspect it’s a rather small 
town.  <http://www.wrdw.com/health/headlines/8098752.html>

         This link appears to be Georgia Power’s reply to the BREDL report: 
<http://media.graytvinc.com/documents/nuclear-power-cancer-response.pdf> 
It is about one and one-fourth pages of PDF.

         Blue Ridge’s website is www.bredl.org.  It has links to the Vogtle 
report, and to a report claiming an increase in child mortality.  I 
couldn’t get these links to work (they are PDF --- always 
stubborn).  Perhaps you will have better luck.

         I find it odd that the Chronicle article invokes cancer rates in 
Wilkes county.  The Vogtle reactor appears to be near Waynesboro, which is 
the county seat of Burke county.  Washington (GA), the county seat of 
Wilkes county, is about 60 miles NE of Waynesboro, and there are two 
counties between Wilkes and Burke.  The article says that Wilkes is a 
“surrounding” county to Burke.  With two intervening counties, and 60 miles 
of separation for the county seats, that doesn’t exactly make Wilkes a 
surrounding county, does it?

         I also find it odd that Mangano says the reactor is not 
automatically responsible for the increased rate of cancer.  He invokes 
“poor and high-minority” residents of the area as possible reasons for 
increased cancers.  Perhaps in Mangano’s world being poor and minority 
trumps ‘deadly radiation.’

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com



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.

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