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RE: Cancer mortality rates
Jack Earley wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Earley, Jack
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 4:25 PM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Cancer mortality rates
The following letter is from the Tri-City Herald, July 10,2002:
Cancer death rates lower here
One in eight Americans will develop thyroid cancer.
The only consistent and overall highest incidence of thyroid cancer
deaths (rated 10 on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being highest) from
1950-1994, per the National Cancer Institute, is concentrated around
Houston, Texas, and, for females only, in one small county each in central
Pennsylvania, north central Ohio and eastern Michigan.
The overall cancer death rate from 1950-1994 for Benton and Franklin
counties [location of Hanford site] is below the national average. The
1950-1994 highest cancer death rates overall are in King County (Seattle)
and Multnomah County (Portland).
Several multiyear studies show that low levels of radiation actually
stimulate the immune system.
I am a consumer advocate for cancer research and related activities,
am associated with the National Cancer Institute, and am Northwest chair of
the National Association of Cancer Patients.
For more information, see www.cancerpatients.org
<http://www.cancerpatients.org>.
Marlene Oliver, West Richland
Jack Earley
Radiological Engineer
=====================
I saw this letter when it appeared in the Herald, but decided not to waste
my once-a-month letter to the editor allowance responding to it (when there
might be a later letter or something else in the Herald in much greater need
of response).
There are at least two things wrong with the letter.
Far fewer than one in eight Americans will develop anything clinically
recognizable as thyroid cancer (incidence rates are on the order of 2 per
100,000 population per year). There is evidence that one in sixteen
Americans will show signs of small thyroid tumors on autopsy, tumors that
were never recognized clinically and that were not the cause of death.
The letter makes assertions about overall cancer death rates from 1950-1994
in Benton and Franklin counties. To the best of my knowledge, that data
does not exist. For many years the only regional cancer registry was the
Blue Mountain Cancer Registry, located in Walla Walla in Walla Walla County,
about 50 miles from the Tri-Cities, but its coverage of Benton and Franklin
County cancer was incomplete since many cancer patients go to Spokane or
Seattle for treatment or, more recently, stay in the Tri-Cities. I assume
the data for recent years (say 1985 to present) is more complete.
I would not be surprised to discover that the cancer rate in Benton and
Franklin counties is lower than many other places, but I don't believe that
has been established. What has been established is that Hanford workers
have lower cancer rates than the general public and that the Tri-Cities and
its surroundings have thyroid disease rates that are indistinguishable for
other populations. Further, within the Tri-Cities and its surroundings,
exposure of those who were children in the mid- and late-40s to radioiodine
releases from the Hanford Site had no detectable impact on the rate of
thyroid disease in that population (per the recently completed HTDS).
Ms Oliver's goals and those of the organization she represents here in the
Northwest appear to be laudable, but she damages her and their credibility
by arguments that cannot be supported.
Best regards.
Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov
These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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