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Re: Study_shows_potential_link_to_radiation,_cancer__________________________
I find this whole story appalling. What sick mind
would drag a child cancer patient around as some kind
of prop.
--- Peter Genzer <genzer@BNL.GOV> wrote:
> Radsafers,
>
> Follow-up on yesterday's Mangano press conference
> from Pottstown, PA's
> "The Mercury" daily paper. The Pottstown mayor has
> certainly made her
> mind up.
>
> Peter A. Genzer
> Principal Media & Communications Specialist
> Brookhaven National Laboratory
> Phone: 631 344-3174
> Fax: 631 344-3368
> E-mail: genzer@bnl.gov
> Web: www.bnl.gov
>
>
> http://www.zwire.com/site/
>
news.cfm?newsid=10542296&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6
>
> ACE: Study shows ‘potential link’ to radiation,
> cancer
>
> John Gentzel jgentzel@pottsmerc.com
> 11/20/2003
>
> POTTSTOWN -- Aaron Holden knows what it’s like to be
> young and have
> cancer.
>
> The Owen J. Roberts High School student was
> diagnosed with cancer
> several years ago, and missed lots of school. And in
> the process,
> Holden said he lost many friends. Those classmates
> who would talk to
> him "were afraid of catching cancer," he said.
>
> Many in the community, including the members of the
> Alliance for a
> Clean Environment, believe that Holden is an
> unfortunate casualty of
> living inside what it calls the toxic triangle
> surrounding Pottstown.
>
> The triangle is comprised of the toxic emissions
> coming from Occidental
> Chemical in Lower Pottsgrove and the Pottstown
> Landfill in West
> Pottsgrove, and the radiation from Exelon Nuclear’s
> Limerick Generating
> Station. And this combination of pollutants is why
> ACE and other
> environmental activists believe the Pottstown area
> has significantly
> higher cases of certain types of cancer, including
> those affecting
> children.
>
> On Wednesday, Joseph Mangano, national director of
> the Radiation and
> Public Health Project, discussed the results of a
> study that local
> activists believe reaffirm existence of the toxic
> triangle.
>
> The aptly titled Tooth Fairy Project looks at the
> levels of a
> radioactive isotope in the baby teeth of children
> across the country.
> So far, Mangano said, nearly 4,000 teeth have been
> studied nationally,
> including many in the Pottstown area.
>
> The level of the isotope in question, strontium-90,
> in the 95 baby
> teeth collected in communities in the Pottstown area
> from children born
> after 1979 is 34 percent higher than the rest of
> Pennsylvania, the
> study says. Even worse, the average in teeth from
> Pottstown children is
> 62 percent higher, according the report.
>
> Because strontium-90 is a known carcinogen,
> Mangano’s study also looked
> at cancer rates in the area. The results show the
> cancer rate in
> Pottstown area children to be 94 percent higher than
> the national,
> state and regional rates.
>
> The information represents a "potential link"
> between radiation and
> cancer, and ACE President Lewis Cuthbert said they
> were advocating the
> closing of the landfill and the opposition of
> renewing Limerick
> Generating Station’s operating permit.
>
> "It has now been confirmed that they are also at
> risk from Limerick’s
> radiation," Pottstown Mayor Anne Jones said at the
> press conference.
> "We now know, that radiation gets into the bodies of
> our children. That
> our children are far more vulnerable. That there is
> no safe exposure.
> And that on average more children have cancer here
> than anywhere else."
>
> Strontium-90 is not a naturally occurring product.
> It’s one of 100
> radioactive isotopes released by atomic bombs,
> nuclear submarines and
> nuclear reactors.
>
> Since nuclear weapons haven’t been tested above
> ground since the 1960s,
> and the level of strontium-90 has increased, Mangano
> said the likely
> cause of the increase is the nation’s nuclear power
> plants.
>
> Lisa Washak, spokeswoman for Exelon Nuclear’s
> Limerick Generating
> Station, said officials were familiar with the
> study. She argued that
> the information has "never been substantiated by
> scientific evidence"
> and is often used to "support an anti-nuclear
> agenda."
>
> Washak said a comprehensive environmental study was
> conducted before
> construction of the Limerick Generating Station in
> the 1970s to
> determine what elements were in the air, ground and
> water. Since both
> reactors started operating in the late 1980s, the
> facility constantly
> monitors its releases and conducts thorough
> environmental testing to
> make sure all emissions are consistent or lower than
> pre-operational
> background levels and compliant with all state and
> federal regulations.
> The information is available to the public and is
> reviewed by the
> Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
>
> "There’s nothing here that wasn’t here before we
> built the plant,"
> Washak said.
>
> Other skeptics of the Tooth Fairy Project point out
> that it’s
> impossible to make any reasonable determination from
> such a small
> sample of the population, only 95 of the millions of
> people in
> Pennsylvania.
>
> Additionally, the study seems to have no control
> group, or tests
> results from areas away from nuclear facilities.
> This is particularly
> prevalent in the results presented Wednesday, as all
> 95 teeth sampled
> were collected from communities surrounding nuclear
> plants, including
> 34 in Pottstown alone. And, opponents argue, while
> the levels may seem
> high, they might be comparable to levels of
> strontium-90 found in the
> baby teeth of children in other areas.
>
> Still, the results are staggering enough for many to
> want further
> explanations provided and studies conducted.
>
> "We need to work together starting today," Cuthbert
> said. "We don’t
> have any expendable children that we’re willing to
> give over to those
> polluters and have them wind up as victims."
>
> ©The Mercury 2003
>
>
>
=====
+++++++++++++++++++
"Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty and . . . you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing."
Andrew Jackson
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird@yahoo.com
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