Why study baby teeth?

[Holloway3@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/10/00 6:52:46 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Edith writes:

<< Why do you as a scientist  reject this project whose purpose is to find the
 source of the cancer cluster in Toms River and may have implications for
 other communities?   The prupose of the
 project is to find why so many children in a concetrated area
 of sufffering from leukemia and bone cancer.  To determine the
 health threat that could be posed by Oyster Creek.  Dont'
 citizens have a right to know >>

There are a number of reasons for thinking that the Tooth Fairy Project is 
more of a public relations gimmick than a serious attempt to find the cause 
of the cancer clusters.  For one thing, the study is very poorly designed, 
even if one accepts the remote possibility that power plant emissions might 
be the reason for the alleged cancer cluster.  In order to prove a link 
between the Sr-90 found in teeth and possible emissions from a plant, a good 
study should measure the strontium near the plant and in the food chain to 
the children.  The absence of such a strategy is a clue that the project is 
not a serious attempt to find useful answers.  In addition, a great deal is 
already known about emissions from power plants and there is nothing to 
suggest any significant enviromental pollution from power plants compared to 
the Sr-90 from weapons testing.  In other words, experts in this area can 
predict with some confidence that emissions from power plants cannot be the 
cause of cancer clusters, contrary to what you suspect.  Any money and effort 
spent on this project will be wasted.    
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