RE: Cancer clusters clarification please

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@PNL.GOV>]

There was a British study showing cancer clusters near military facilities.  The military facilities were Norman-era and later castles.

 

Jim Dukelow

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Philippe Duport [mailto:pduport@uottawa.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 1:12 PM
To: 'Kai Kaletsch'; 'RadSafe'
Subject: RE: Cancer clusters clarification please

Clusters…

 

I remember reading a study on cancer rates around US nuclear sites and sites where nuclear facilities were planned but never built.   There were cancer clusters around some “inexistent” facilities.  I do not remember the reference; it is at the CNSC library.

 

Philippe Duport

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf Of Kai Kaletsch
Sent: July 17, 2002 1:14 PM
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