Ca cluster alleged near FPL

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Courtesy, MIke Russell, Powernet



Do cancers cluster around atomic plants?

July 22, 2004



By Trish Riley, E/The Environmental Magazine



Raised on fresh fruits and vegetables by his vegetarian mother, Ty-

Michael Schmidt never even had a cold or ear infection before the age 

of five. Then doctors found a tumor in his abdomen. His mother and 

some scientists suspect the tumor has something to do with the fact 

that he lives near a nuclear power plant.  



"I never knew a child with cancer until my son," said Audra Schmidt 

of Hobe Sound, Florida. "Now I know nothing but kids with cancer. At 

least 50 kids in our local area have it."  



But there's not a cancer cluster in the neighborhood, according to 

the St. Lucie County, Florida Health Department, which conducted an 

in-depth study of the homes of 28 children with cancer.  



During the same period, another 12 cases were identified in nearby 

Martin County. Tests were conducted on water, soil, air, and dust for 

561 different chemicals and potential contaminants. The results were 

negative for all chemicals tested.  



"We have yet to find any commonality," said James Moses, director of 

environmental health for St. Lucie County. "We are dealing with 30 

cases from 1981 to 1997. There was no cancer cluster."  



The study continues, though, because it did find a marked increase in 

childhood cancers of the brain and central nervous system: 15 

diagnosed in three years, nine within a seven-month period. The 

report notes that the trend should be monitored and perhaps studied 

further.  



Health officials did not test for Strontium 90 (Sr-90), a radioactive 

carcinogenic byproduct of nuclear fission. The Radiation and Public 

Health Project (RPHP), a nonprofit research center in New York City, 

recently released a study linking increased incidence of childhood 

cancers to areas near nuclear power plants. The study was published 

in the peer-reviewed Archives of Environmental Health last year.  



"Of the 14 areas studied, the two counties closest to the reactors in 

St. Lucie County had the highest cancer rates," said principal 

researcher Joseph Mangano, national coordinator of the RPHP. Mangano 

said the Florida State Cancer Registry lists four cases in St. Lucie 

County for children under 10 from 1981 to 1983, but this increased to 

30 cases from 1996 to 1998. Accounting for a near doubling of 

population, the incidence still represents a 40 percent increase, 

compared to an average national increase of 11 percent in childhood 

cancers.  



The RPHP has also been studying radiation levels in baby teeth of 

children around the country. Dubbed the Tooth Fairy Project, 

researchers report higher levels of Sr-90 near nuclear power plants, 

including St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties. Water samples indicate 

higher levels of Sr-90 in areas within 20 miles of the nuclear power 

plants than in more distant locales. The study also found that the 

levels of Sr-90 in the teeth of children diagnosed with cancer were 

nearly twice as high as levels in children who do not have cancer.  



These results are hotly disputed by the multibillion dollar nuclear

power industry.



"Their claims are false," said Rachel Scott, spokesperson for Florida 

Power and Light, which owns the St. Lucie and Miami's Turkey Point 

nuclear power plants. "Cancer levels are not higher in South Florida. 

The levels of Strontium 90 are not higher in South Florida, according 

to the Florida Department of Health and the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission."  



The nuclear industry blames any Sr-90 still in the environment on 

residual effects of bomb testing. But a U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency report says because of decay, insignificant levels of Sr-90 

remain in the soil and atmosphere from the bomb tests that ended 40 

years ago.  



"This touches a nerve in the nuclear power industry," said Stephen 

Lester, science director of the Center for Health, Environment and 

Justice (CHEJ). "These plants are releasing small quantities of low-

level radiation every day. The amounts may seem insignificant, but 

when you look at 50 cities, you can see it slowly has an impact."  



At least two families were sufficiently convinced to file suit 

against Florida Power and Light because of their children's 

illnesses, which include one death. "A huge thing at stake here is 

the state of nuclear power plants," said Nancy LaVista, attorney for 

the plaintiff families. "If in fact it is giving cancer to our 

children, we have a right to know and a duty to protect all citizens 

of Florida."  



St. Lucie and Martin County families have joined forces to create a

packet detailing their children's illnesses.



"It's not so much for our children, who are already sick," said

organizer Debi Santoro, whose four-year-old daughter, Jadyn,

contracted cancer when she was six months old. "It's for the children

to come. These children are dying and they're not going to die in

vain; they're going to help other children."



In another part of the country, New York's Westchester and Suffolk

counties and the state of New Jersey have appropriated funds to study

areas near nuclear plants where cancer clusters are suspected.



A 2003 report released by the European Committee on Radiation Risk 

found the risk from low-level radiation to be significant, 

concluding, "The present cancer epidemic is a consequence of 

exposures to global atmospheric weapons fallout in the period 1959 to 

1963, and more recent releases of radioisotopes to the environment 

from the operation of the nuclear fuel cycle will result in 

significant increases in cancer and other types of ill health."  



Meanwhile, U.S. industry officials label the reports "junk science" 

and push a nuclear energy agenda. The federal government and the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently promoting legislation to 

renew interest in nuclear power and encourage the development of more 

new nuclear power plants for the first time since the Three Mile 

Island nuclear accident in 1979.  



Stephen Lester of CHEJ suggests the power industry adopt his 

organization's new Be Safe Campaign. He said, "It's based on the 

fundamental principle of public health that says, 'If it is dangerous 

or has the potential to harm, proceed with caution.'"  



Now 10, Ty-Michael Schmidt spent a year in the hospital undergoing 

radical experimental treatment for a rare form of cancer. Doctors 

have never been particularly encouraging about his prognosis, giving 

him only six months to live when he was diagnosed four years ago, but 

he is in remission and he's beaten the odds thus far. Doctors say his 

cancer can be traced to fetal cells, meaning it developed in utero.  



For now, RPHP researchers recommend that concerned people try a 

remarkably simple precaution: Drink only water that comes from a 

deep, protected source or that has been filtered to remove Sr-90 

particles (such as by reverse osmosis).  



Source: E/The Environmental Magazine



------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Senior Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@dosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/



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