Radioactive baby teeth flag cancer rate

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

Below is a news story from today's Ottawa Citizen and a press release
from the tooth fairy folks.  I think they clearly demonstrate how
they intend to treat the "science" many people have been trying
to discuss over the last several days.

Mike ... mcbaker@lanl.gov


-----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday May 03, 2000 
Radioactive baby teeth flag cancer rate

Scientists find breast cancer rates
elevated in areas with high exposure 

Tom Spears
The Ottawa Citizen

Baby teeth collected from children in the United States show an
unsettling pattern: Children whose teeth contain a lot of
radioactive
material live in areas with high breast cancer rates. 

And the radioactive levels are rising. Teeth of children born since
1990 show some of the highest levels of radioactive materials
since the early 1960s, when superpowers tested atomic bombs in
the atmosphere. 

Leaders of the Tooth Fairy Project, which asks parents to mail in
their children's teeth after they fall out, will present detailed
results
in Ottawa at this week's World Conference on Breast Cancer. 

The likeliest cause of the rising radioactive levels in teeth, they
say,
is leaks from nuclear power plants. 

And they're hoping to collect teeth from Canadian children next.
It's
the easiest way of testing what's in children's bodies. 

The U.S. and Soviet Union agreed to ban atomic bomb tests in the
atmosphere in 1963. A crucial argument at the time was that baby
teeth from U.S. children showed a buildup of strontium-90, a
radioactive element. 

Now the strontium is coming back. 

"The data will be released at the meeting," said Dr. 
Janet
Sherman, a speaker at this week's conference, which begins
tomorrow. "But in general we are finding that strontium-90 levels
in
baby teeth of children born since 1990 are reaching the levels that
were in existence during the above-ground bomb-testing years,
which is very scary. 

"Where's it coming from? Well, we're not doing above-ground
testing of bombs, so there's only one place it could be coming
from. And that is normally acting nuclear reactors. 

"This should be a bombshell, if you'll pardon the expression,"
Dr.
Sherman said. 

She said the group has found strontium in about 300 teeth from
children living on Long Island, near New York City. 

"Long Island has one of the highest breast cancer rates in the
United States. We're finding that the area where the high breast
cancer and childhood cancer rates (are found) is exactly where the
plumes cross from two very big nuclear power reactors." 

The two plants are the Millstone plant in Connecticut, just north 
of
Long Island, and Oyster Creek in New Jersey. 

People living in the paths of those "plumes" of radiation,
downwind
of reactors, have more radioactive material in their teeth, the
project found. 

"We ultimately will want to collect some (teeth) from 
Canadians
both upwind and downwind" from nuclear reactors here, Dr.
Sherman said. 

She said children with high levels of radioactive material also 
show
a higher-than-normal rate of rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of
bone cancer. 

Dr. Sherman is an internal medicine specialist and toxicologist in
Virginia. She has a regular medical practice but volunteers on the
side for the Tooth Fairy Project. She is the author of two books:
Chemical Exposure and Disease, and Life's Delicate Balance: A
Guide to Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer. 

Jay Gould, director of the Tooth Fairy Project, said the project 
has
already collected teeth from a few Canadian children, but not
enough to see a pattern. 

Coincidentally, the project already sends all the teeth it collects
to
Canada for analysis at the University of Waterloo. 

The nuclear industry in Canada and the United States closely
follows the health of nuclear workers, and says these people are, 
if
anything, healthier than the general population. 

But Dr. Sherman says children are vulnerable in a way that adults
are not. 

Radioactive material from the air, either from bombs or nuclear
plant emissions, gets into vegetation, including grass and
vegetables. If cows eat tainted grass, their milk picks up the
radioactive material, which stays active for years. 

"The mother eats milk and vegetables and cheese and the
strontium 90 goes up the food chain. The biggest thing is pre-natal
exposure," Dr. Sherman said. "These kids are getting it in
utero (in
the womb). 

"So if you're talking about the healthy (nuclear) workers, these
are
men who may not drink much milk. And they are already developed."

In Ontario, fish near the Pickering and Bruce nuclear plants on
Lake Ontario and Lake Huron, respectively, pick up low levels of
radioactivity. Tonnes of mildly radioactive waste water from the
plants are routinely flushed into the lakes. 

Last year, a farmer near the Bruce plant learned from Ontario
Hydro that his apples and onions were up to 100 times more
radioactive than normal "background" levels, though still
within
official safe limits. 

Federal Environment Minister Christine Stewart has just given the
Bruce plant permission to build more than 1,200 new silos above
ground to store high-level radioactive waste for an estimated 30 to
50 years. There was no environmental assessment. 

Dr. Sherman's group asks anyone interested in sending baby teeth
to the Tooth Fairy Project to check instructions on the group's Web
site at
www.radiation.org.


----------------------------------------------------------
Press Release - April 26, 2000 
For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Cullen (516) 819-4886 
Jerry Brown (305) 321-5612

Infant Deaths Drop Dramatically After Nuclear Plants Close
Model, Congressman Join Groups In Calling on Government to Consider
Adverse 
Health Effects of Radiation When Renewing Nuclear Plant Licenses

[WASHINGTON, D.C] -- Infant death rates near five U.S. nuclear plants
dropped immediately and dramatically after the reactors closed, a new
study 
shows, raising questions about the government s refusal to consider the
effects of radioactive emissions from nuclear plants on local
residents.
Moreover, dramatic decreases in childhood cancer cases and deaths from
birth defects, which are strongly affected by radiation exposure,
occurred 
near one of the reactors. The study suggests that the health of 42
million 
Americans who live downwind and within 50 miles of a nuclear plant may be
affected by these reactors, according to the study s author. The study
was 
conducted by the New York-based Radiation and Public Health Project and
published in the spring issue of the scientific journal Environmental
Epidemiology and Toxicology.

In light of the study, model Christie Brinkley today joined Rep. Michael
Forbes (D-N.Y.) and others in calling upon the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) to immediately consider whether adverse health effects
are 
associated with nuclear plant operations before renewing nuclear power
plant licenses. Brinkley is a board member of the STAR (Standing for
Truth 
About Radiation) Foundation, a group formed in 1997 by concerned Long
Island residents.

"As a mother of young children who lives near nuclear facilities, I
worry 
daily that radiation from these plants may be deadly to our
children," 
Brinkley said. "So far, the federal government has buried its head
in the 
sand. If closing the nuclear power plants was not responsible for the
decline in infant deaths, what was?"

The NRC rules do not consider the potential adverse health effects of
radioactive emissions when considering license renewal applications.
Owners 
of twenty-eight nuclear reactors at 17 nuclear facilities around the
country are scheduled to seek license renewals by 2003. The NRC has never
voluntarily studied the link between radioactive emissions from nuclear
plants and patterns of cancer.

The study, conducted by Joseph J. Mangano, a research associate at the
Radiation and Public Health Project, examined infant death rates in 
counties within 50 miles and in the prevailing wind direction of five
reactors: Fort St. Vrain (located near Denver, Colo.), LaCrosse (near
LaCrosse, Wis.), Millstone/Haddam Neck (near New London CT), Rancho Seco
(near Sacramento, Calif.) and Trojan (near Portland, Ore.).

In the first two years after the reactors closed, infant death rates in
the 
downwind counties under 40 miles from the plants fell 15 to 20 percent
from 
the previous two years, compared to an average U.S. decline of just six
percent between 1985 and 1996. In each of the five areas studied, no
other 
nuclear reactor operated within 70 miles of the closed reactor,
essentially 
creating a "nuclear-free zone."

The study detailed the plunges in newly-diagnosed leukemia and cancer
cases 
and birth defect deaths in children under five years in the four-county
local area downwind from Rancho Seco. This excessive decline has
continued 
through the first seven years after the June 1989 closing. In contrast,
the 
local infant death rate rose in the two years after Rancho Seco began
operations in 1974.

"This article is the first to document improvements in health after
a 
nuclear plant closes," says study author Mangano. "It supports
many other 
studies showing elevated childhood cancer near operating reactors."
"The 
federal government allows nuclear reactors to emit a certain level of
radiation, saying that the amount is too low to result in adverse local
health effects. However, this study clearly calls that assumption into
question, as do other studies," he concluded.

The announcement comes on the 14th anniversary of the catastrophic
accident 
at Chernobyl, a nuclear power reactor. Increased infant cancer and death
rates after Chernobyl have been documented, not just in the former Soviet
Union, but in Western Europe and the U.S., where Chernobyl fallout levels
were deemed by regulators to be within safe limits.

Nuclear plants seeking re-licensing this year include Oconee Nuclear
Station in northwest South Carolina; Arkansas Nuclear One in
Russellville, 
Ark.; Edwin I. Hatch in southern Georgia; and Turkey Point near Miami,
Fla. 
In 2001, plants expected to seek re-licensing include Catawba, which lies
on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina; North Anna,
located near Fredericksburg, Va.; Surry, near Virginia Beach, Va.; and
Peach Bottom, located near Lancaster, Pa. Recently, the government 
approved a license renewal application for Calvert Cliffs, located near
Baltimore, Md.

Said Forbes, whose eastern Long Island district lies across the Long
Island 
Sound from Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut, "On this
day in 
particular, which is the fourteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster
in Russia, we need to address the very real and legitimate concerns of
people who live near nuclear reactors. At the very least, the government
has a responsibility to determine whether emissions from these plants are
harming people."

Janette Sherman, an Alexandria, Va., M.D. who specializes in internal
medicine and toxicology, and has written books about the causes of breast
cancer and the relationship between chemical exposure and disease, said
she 
believes Mangano's study confirms the link between radiation and
illness.
"This confirms the best of public health principles: that when you
remove a 
known cause of illness, health improves," Sherman said. "The
adverse 
effects on humans exposed to radiation are predictable. What is
gratifying 
about the research is that it showed childhood health measures increasing
so dramatically and quickly after the reactors closed."

For some of those who live near reactors, the government's inaction has
been maddening. Randy Snell, a New York resident who lives near the 
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), learned several years ago that his
8-year-old daughter had developed a rare soft tissue cancer called 
rhabdomyosarcoma. Snell also has uncovered 19 other cases of the same
rare 
cancer in Suffolk County; in one area near BNL, the rate of this cancer
in 
children under 10 since 1994 is 15 times the national average.

"I have no doubt that radiation from nuclear reactors sickens people
who 
live nearby," Snell said. "What is really disheartening,
though, is that 
state and federal public health agencies haven t lifted a finger to
confirm 
the link between Brookhaven and all these rare child cancers. I hope this
study forces them to act."

###

Scott Cullen 
Counsel 
Standing for Truth About Radiation (STAR) 
East Hampton, NY 11937 
scott@noradiation.org 
jbbrown@gate.net 
http://www.noradiation.org
516 324-0655 fax; 2203

Jerry Brown, Ph.D. 
National Coordinator 
Radiation and Public Health Project 
Miami Beach, Florida 33140 
http://www.radiation.org 
305-321-5612
________________________________________________________________________