[ RadSafe ] " German doctor takes anti-nuclear message to western Canada "

[Steven Dapra]

Oct. 9

         I did a Google search for Dr. Ernst Iskenius and got some results.

         Here is a link to a blog with a longer article than Franta 
posted.  http://pharmadaddy.blogspot.com/2008/10/nuclear-energy.html
The article is from the Peace River (Alberta) Record Gazette.  The article 
is followed by a commentary from a pharmacist who is vague about how he did 
it, but he managed to obtain citations for two papers about this presumed 
increase in cancers around power reactors.  The first paper was published 
in Environmental Health Perspectives [115(6):947-952; June 2007].  The link 
to the abstract is 
<http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2007/9861/abstract.html>.  The abstract has 
links to HTML and PDF formats of the full version.  They are each available 
at no charge.

         Title and authors are: Childhood Leukemia in the Vicinity of the 
Geesthacht Nuclear Establishments near Hamburg, Germany
Wolfgang Hoffmann,1 Claudia Terschueren,1 and David B. Richardson2
1Institute for Community Medicine, Section Epidemiology of Health Care and 
Community Health, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Greifswald, 
Germany; 2Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University 
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

         The other paper is "Meta-analysis of standardized incidence and 
mortality rates of childhood leukaemia in proximity to nuclear 
facilitiies," by P. J. Baker and D. G. Hoel.  The abstract is available at 
<http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117989544/abstract>.  It was 
published in the European Journal of Cancer Care [16(4):355-363; July 2007.]

         For the geographers at RADSAFE, Peace River is about 250 miles 
northwest of Edmonton, Alberta.  According to my 1991 road atlas, it has a 
population of under 1000.

Steven Dapra


At 10:01 AM 10/9/08 -0400, Franta, Jaroslav wrote:
>German doctor takes anti-nuclear message to western Canada
>Canadian Press, 8 October 2008
>
>PEACE RIVER, Alta. _ A German doctor is travelling through western Alberta 
>delivering a message about the dangers of nuclear power.


>Dr. Ernst Iskenius says a 2007 study by the German government shows the 
>closer you live to a nuclear power plant, the more likely your children 
>will get cancer.
>
>Iskenius, a member of the international organization Physicians Against 
>Nuclear War, is on a speaking tour that includes visits to Regina, 
>Whitecourt and Peace River.
>
>He says the report found that during the years of 1980 to 2003, children 
>under the age of five living close to a nuclear power plant were 120 per 
>cent more likely to develop leukemia.
>
>He says there were also 60 per cent more likely to develop other forms of 
>cancer.
>
>The report looked at 16 power plants and was funded by the German Federal 
>Radiation Protection Agency.
>
>The several doctors involved in the four-year study were a mixture of 
>those against nuclear plants, and those who were proponents, said Iskenius.
>
>"It is an extraordinary study,'' he said. "The results were quite 
>different than (the government) expected. They expected no evidence like 
>they did in prior studies, but what they found was they took all 16 plants 
>and found there was a significant risk to get cancer (in children).''
>
>The study also observed children downwind from the plants and found 
>similar results.
>
>Despite the findings, there is still uncertainty about nuclear power 
>within Germany.
>
>German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he was perplexed by the 
>findings, as radiation levels are regulated rigorously.
>"The population's radiation exposure due to the operation of a nuclear 
>power plants in Germany would have to be at least 1,000 times higher to be 
>able to explain the observed increase in cancer,'' he said.
>
>Iskenius urged northern Albertans to lobby government to reconsider 
>allowing a proposed nuclear reactor near Lac Cardinal, north of Peace River.
>"If this nuclear plant is too dangerous and there is a risk for all 
>children then we either accept these things as very dangerous or we 
>(raise) the standards,'' he said.
>"On the international level we are fighting to shut down all of these 
>installations because the risk is too great.''