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

[Steven Dapra]

Oct. 13, 2008

(Comments follow)

“Leukaemia in young children living in the vicinity of German nuclear power 
plants,” by Peter Kaatsch, Claudia Spix, Renate Schulze-Rath, Sven 
Schmiedel, Maria
Blettner; in International Journal of Cancer [122(4):721-6; Feb. 2008].

Full abstract at: 
http://www.find-health-articles.com/rec_pub_18067131-leukaemia-young-children-living-vicinity-german-nuclear-power-plants.htm.

         The authors note some studies showing apparent increases in 
leukemias around British power reactors, and say:  “These reports prompted 
a study of almost identical design that was based on the data of the German 
Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR) and was conducted in the late 1980s. This 
was an ecological study comparing disease rates within 15 km (roughly 10 
miles) of German nuclear plants with those seen in specified control areas. 
The study period extended from 1980 through 1990 (Study 1).”

         Another quote:  “The study group includes all children diagnosed 
of a malignant disease (or nonmalignant brain tumor) from January 1, 1980 
through December 31, 2003, who had been diagnosed before their fifth 
birthday, who were living in the study area when diagnosed, and who had 
been registered with the GCCR.”

         Another:  “The study includes a total of 593 leukaemia cases and 
1,766 matched controls.”

         And another:  “Precise data on exposure would be desirable, for 
example, from measurement of radiation exposure in the subjects, however, 
such data are not available.  It was therefore decided to work with the 
distance measure, that is, proximity to the nearest nuclear power plant. It 
was not possible to account for the fact that children will naturally spend 
time at places other than their home address. Moreover, the residential 
history of the study subjects was not available.”  (Quotes are in the order 
they appear in the paper.)

         Note that this is an ecological study, hence there are no data on 
radiation exposure.  The deciding factor is the distance the child lives 
from the power plant.

         The authors of another study analyzed 80 thermoluminescent 
dosimeters within a 15 km radius of the Krummel reactor.  Omitting some of 
the complications, in an inner zone (2.5 km radius) they discovered a 
difference in gamma exposures corresponding to “a mean additional exposure 
of 0.09 mSv per year [that] cannot be explained by small-scale spatial 
variation of the background external gamma radiation field.”

         Can an additional 0.09 mSv cause leukemia?  That’s only nine 
millirems, isn’t it?  If so, that sounds too small to do much of anything.

         The study is “Leukemia in the proximity of a German boiling-water 
nuclear reactor: evidence of population exposure by chromosome studies and 
environmental radioactivity,” by Schmitz-Feuerhake I, Dannheim B, Heimers 
A, Oberheitmann B, Schröder H, Ziggel H. 1997; in Environ Health Perspect 
105(suppl 6):14991504.

         In an editorial [122(4):x-xi; Feb. 15, 2008] in the above-cited 
International Journal of Cancer, three editors profess perplexitude about 
the leukemias in the German study.  They flat out don’t know what to make 
of it.

         In a review of "Childhood Cancer and Nuclear Installations" (Hall 
1994), Hall, the reviewer, writes, "Leukaemia clusters similar to that 
noted at Seascale have been observed in sites proposed for a nuclear 
facility, but where the reactor was never activated, and also in remote 
areas developed for oil installations.  This observation supports the idea 
that the Seascale excess, if it is not simply a statistical aberration, is 
due to some unidentified factor, but is not associated with radiation."

Steven Dapra

REFERENCE

Hall, Eric.  Unknown Agent (book review).  Nature.  367:421; 3 February, 
1994.