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-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Kaletsch [mailto:info@eic.nu] Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 10:14 AM To: RadSafe Subject: Cancer clusters clarification please What is the currently accepted theory behind the
leukemia clusters? Is it that they are statistical outliers?
I thought it was that it was viruses introduced by
a mobile workforce into isolated communities. I thought the clusters were
reproduced in other instances where mobile workers came into stable, immobile
communities.
This is not a very pleasant theory. It promotes
xenophobia and, to avoid stigmatizing cancer, bacterial and viral causes are not
in fashion ("Cancer is not contagious"). It is much easier to blame it on
radiation.
Kai
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There was a time, not too long ago, when ideas of viral (and
bacterial) causation of cancer were out of fashion, but that time is past.
It is well-recognized that Hepatitis C causes some liver cancers, human
papillomavirus causes some cervical cancers, and helicobacter pylori is the
probable cause of some stomach cancers. There are lots of other
candidates. Recognition of virally-caused animal tumors goes back about 80
years.
It seems like the idea of infectious causation of
leukemia is catching on in the press and among
laymen.
Best regards.
Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory
Richland, WA
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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