Re: Tooth Fairy Project's latest news release -Alec Baldwinletter

["Carl Paperiello" <CJP1@NRC.GOV>]

No full report only exec. summary?



>>> <SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM> 4/5/2001 10:41:33 AM >>>

Radsafe:



For those of you interested in the claims of the so-called "Radiation and 

Public Health Project" and the efforts of Alec Baldwin to raise money in 

Florida on behalf of the "Tooth Fairy Project" see the news release below 

from "DOEWatch". If you're not interested in this subject simply delete this 

post.



 Of note there is an 800 phone  number for the Tooth Fairy Project to request 

info and tooth mailing envelopes. Perhaps some might be interested in 

requesting their info packet, and sending them something to test [QA samples 

perhaps or some other contributed sample?].  As noted they've tested only 86 

teeth from Florida and already Dr. Sternglass is making claims in public 

forums that Turkey Point and St. Lucie are a contributor to childhood cancers 

in Florida. Remarkable.



Some may recall an earlier post of mine to radsafe about Cs-137 in biomass 

wood ash [part of a nationwide survey of Cs-137 in wood ash] from Florida 

indicating that Florida has the highest transfer factors for Cs-137 from soil 

to plants of any region of the country. Cs-137 in woodash from northern 

Florida was measured by germanium gamma spectroscopy to be in excess of 

30,000 pCi/kg of wood ash vs. levels of only a few hundred pci/kg ash in 

California  [100 times lower than FL] with Cs-137 deposition in CA perhaps 

one-half  to one-third of Florida. Sr-90 level variations in biomass [and 

ultimately in people eating local produce] are likely to range over even 

wider ranges.



Many of the recent immigrants to Florida are likely to be of Spanish 

backgroud coming from Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean which reported 

extraordinarily high Cs-137 levels in grass during the peak of fallout in the 

1960s due to very low stable potassium levels in local soils. Residual levels 

of Cs and Sr in biomass eaten by Caribbean immigrants and FL residents eating 

local produce  is likely to be significantly higher than other parts of the 

US.



Any claims made by the Tooth Fairy Project in regard to Sr-90 in baby teeth 

in Florida residents [and elsewhere] are ignoring the wide variations in 

transfer of the deposition of Cs-137 and Sr-90 which occured during open air 

testing of nuclear weapons. The unsupported, and unscientific,  claims of 

Sternglass and Baldwin appear to be nothing but propaganda aimed at raising 

money from gullible individuals, corporations, and government entities, and 

scare tactics aimed at the general public to support their agenda. It's quite 

a clever and deceptive campaign.



Stewart Farber

Public Health Sciences

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com 

======================



Subj:    [DOEWatch] NPPs Linked To Increased Childhood Cancers, China Looks 

To Expand Nuclear Power

Date:   4/5/01 8:02:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time

From:   smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Bill Smirnow)

To: nukenet@envirolink.org (Nukenet), Nucnews@egroups.com (Nucnews List), 

downwinders@egroups.com (Downwinders List), doewatch@yahoogroups.com 

(DOE-Watch List), Abolition-Caucus@yahoogroups.com (Abolition-Caucus), 

nrdcaction@nrdc.org (NRDC)





 RPHP Site:  http://www.radiation.org 



- "Concentrations of radioactive Strontium-90 in 86 Dade County baby teeth

tested by RPHP have been rising since the early 1980s.  The current level is

equal to that of the late 1950s, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union

conducted large-scale nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere."









Radiation and Public Health Project





Press Release Contact: Jerry Brown, Ph.D., (305) 321-5612

 Jay Gould, Ph.D., (212) 496-6787

March 28, 2001 Joseph Mangano, MPH, MBA, (718) 857-9825

Janette Sherman, M.D., (703) 329-8223



RADIATION FROM NUCLEAR REACTORS LINKED TO

INCREASING CHILDHOOD CANCER IN SOUTH FLORIDA



Actor Alec Baldwin sends letters to 10,000 South Florida

 families requesting donations of baby teeth to the "Tooth Fairy Project"



Miami, Florida -  On March 28 - the 22nd anniversary of the Three Mile

Island nuclear accident -- the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP)

released a Special Report on the South Florida Baby Teeth Study:

"Environmental Radiation from Nuclear Reactors and Increasing Children's

Cancer in Southeastern Florida" at a Community Forum on the South Florida

"Tooth Fairy Project" at Florida International University in Miami, Florida

(see Media Advisory for details).



Dr. Ernest Sternglass, RPHP Chief Scientist, and Professor Emeritus of

Radiation Physics, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, presented

the Report findings and stated, "This recent evidence suggests that

radioactive chemicals emitted from the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear

power plants are one cause of rising cancer rates in South Florida."  The

RPHP Southeastern Florida Report also found that:



- "From 1970-87, the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear reactors emitted

10.39 trillion picocuries of radioactivity into the air," according to

Brookhaven National Laboratory reports.



- "Concentrations of radioactive Strontium-90 in 86 Dade County baby teeth

tested by RPHP have been rising since the early 1980s.  The current level is

equal to that of the late 1950s, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union

conducted large-scale nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere."



- "Dade County and other southeastern Florida baby teeth have the highest

levels of radioactive Strontium-90, a known carcinogen, than anywhere in the

U.S. where baby teeth have been studied.  In addition, the area also has a

rate of childhood cancer that is considerably higher than the U.S. average."



-      "From the early 1980s to the early 1990s, cancer incidence in

children under 10 rose 35.2% in five southeastern Florida counties, compared

to a 10.8% rise in the U.S.  Children are especially sensitive to the

carcinogenic effects of radioactivity.  These five counties are: Broward,

Dade, Martin, Palm Beach and St. Lucie."

- "In Dade County, childhood cancer rises after radioactivity levels in

precipitation rise, and declines after levels drop.  This is strong evidence

that exposure to radioactivity is one cause of cancer in southeastern

Florida."



The report recommended that: "Information on the radiation-cancer link

should be considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's

environmental review of utility applications to renew and extend the

licenses of aging nuclear power plants in Florida and across the U.S."



Joseph Mangano, National Coordinator, RPHP, also announced that actor Alec

Baldwin is sending letters to 10,000 South Florida families living in Miami-

Dade and St. Lucie counties, asking for donations of baby teeth to the RPHP

"Tooth Fairy Project."  The Project hopes to collect and test 1,000 Florida

teeth for levels of Strontium-90, a radioactive chemical and known

carcinogen released into the environment by nuclear weapons testing and the

operation of nuclear power plants. For information and baby teeth mailing

envelopes, people can call RPHP toll free at 800-582-3716, or visit the RPHP

web site at: www.radiation.org.



The Report includes the current findings of the RPHP Baby Teeth Study on

1352 U.S. baby teeth that have been analyzed for levels of radioactive

Strontium-90, including 86 teeth from Miami-Dade County and a total of 121

Florida teeth.



Scientific reports based on the early findings of the RPHP Baby Teeth Study

have been published, in 2000, in several peer-reviewed medical and

environmental journals, including The International Journal of Health

Services, Archives of Environmental Health, European Journal of Oncology,

and Envr. Epidemiology and Toxicology.



RPHP director, Jay Gould, Ph.D. said, "These findings indicate that

Americans continued to absorb radiation for years after all atmospheric

nuclear testing ended in 1980 and the last underground tests occurred in

1992. They suggest that new and additional releases of radioactive

Strontium-90 have been entering the human environment during the 1980s and

1990s, probably coming from nuclear reactors."



RPHP Research Associated, Janette Sherman, M.D.,  noted, "Investigating a

possible environmental radiation-cancer link is especially urgent given that

Strontium-90 is a known carcinogen and a marker for other shorter-lived

fission products, and simply should not be present at all in our children's

teeth."



The South Florida Baby Teeth Study is supported by grants from Applica,

Inc., a Miami Lakes based manufacturer of home appliances and by the Health

Foundation of South Florida, which was established in 1993 as a

not-for-profit charity, funding medical research, education and primary

health care initiatives.  The Foundation has awarded over $37 million in

grants for programs supporting the underserved within the South Florida

community.







Alec Baldwin







Dear Parents:



I am writing you as someone concerned that high cancer rates may be

influenced by radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants.



I became personally involved with this issue after meeting families in Long

Island, New York, whose children had developed and, in some cases, died from

rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer - a cancer whose cause has been

linked to radiation exposure.  These families are living at "ground zero" of

America's cancer epidemic.  For them, the American dream has become a

nightmare.



One reason behind high cancer rates may be radioactive leaks and releases

from nuclear power reactors.  These releases get into the air, drinking

water, and food, and enter the human body (see information on reverse side).

But the U.S. government does not measure just how much radioactivity gets

into the body, or whether it is harmful.



In South Florida, cancer diagnosed in children under five years old went up

42% in the past 15 years, compared to only 8% in the United States.

Emissions from the St. Lucie and Turkey Point nuclear reactors may be behind

this trend.



To document a possible radiation/cancer connection, the Radiation and Public

Health Project (RPHP) needs only one of the baby teeth that your child has

lost.  RPHP is collecting baby teeth as part of a national, scientific study

to measure levels of radioactive Strontium-90 in these teeth.  So please

help.  Every tooth is a clue!



I know that cancer is an overwhelming issue to confront.  Yet, we have

already spent $25 billion on a "War on Cancer" without any significant

decline in America's cancer rates.  It is only through public education,

supported by solid scientific research, that we will be able to create a

safe environment and healthy future for our children.



Thank you in advance for supporting the "Tooth Fairy Project."



Yours sincerely,







Alec Baldwin



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