[ RadSafe ] Did Burke Co, GA Nuc Prosperity Bring Smoking Cancer?

[Alan Stahler]

Was a new hospital built?

--- howard long <hflong at pacbell.net> wrote:

> "Did a new hospital draw the sick?" (Brennan), is
> one explanation for the increase in cancer mortality
> with nuclear power in Burke Co. GA. Of course any
> radiation from the plant was never as much as
> Denver's apparently beneficial background level.
> 
>   Another, is the possibility of increased smoking
> with the increased prosperity.
>   Anti-nuc activism disregards such, as indicated by
> the very name of one group,
>   "Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment -
> CARE".
>   I must confess to enjoying their perplexity when I
> turned on my clicking PalmRad at a couple of their
> meetings, since all environment is naturally
> radioactive, especially near our K40..
>    
>   Howard Long
> 
>   "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" <Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>
> wrote:
>   This is a beautiful example of why statistics need
> to be understood, not
> just used. I am not familiar with Vogtle, or the
> data used, but one
> possibility comes to mind: When the power plant
> increased the amount of
> money in Burke County, did a new hospital open up?
> Hospitals that
> attract terminally ill people from surrounding
> counties cause the
> mortality rate to go up.
> 
> Finding an apparent statistical anomaly shouldn't be
> the end of a study
> and an invitation to attach whatever conclusion you
> want, but should be
> the beginning of a new, more involved effort to find
> out what the
> numbers REALLY mean. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf Of Jenkins, Ken A.
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 5:04 AM
> To: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Mangano's New Study
> 
> 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.
> 
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