Re: Manhattan Project Legacy

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 6/8/03 12:15:54 PM Mountain Daylight Time, sjd@swcp.com writes:


> There probably wasn't any health threat
>
> either.  (See Janerich et. al. 1981.)
>
>
>
>
> REFERENCE
>
>
> Janerich Dwight T. et. al.  Cancer Incidence in the Love Canal Area.
>
> Science.  212:1404-1407; 6-19-81.



Thank you, Steve for this reference.  This is a very interesting paper that I brought to the attention of my "Intro to Pollution" class (when the paper was published, in 1981).  The authors looked at the incidence of, as I recall, a dozen different types of cancer, and 10 and 20-year latencies, and found no statistically significant excess. (The preceding sentence is a very brief summary of the overall results and no attempt at detail).  I might point out that at the time, everyone I talked to, and I myself, believed that the Love Canal residents had been exposed to carcinogens, and we were all surprised by the results presented in Janerich, et al.


I have never read that Cs-137 (above that from fallout from atmospheric testing) was present in the Love Canal effluent.  Why would Cs-137, or any radionuclide, be present at Love Canal in excess of what is found in NORM or in fallout?  The Love Canal effluents were essentially chemically hazardous wastes from chemical processes.  


Ruth

Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com