Hanford Thyroid Study Faulted

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

I posted the following item in my news distribution last night. It is of 
general importance, and am posting it to Radsafe as well .. in that 
it refutes the most recent study at Hanford.

Hanford Thyroid Study Faulted

SPOKANE, Wash., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A recent study suggesting 
that high  rates of thyroid disease near Washington state's Hanford 
nuclear reservation are not linked to radiation releases from the 
facility is being widely criticized. 	The critics of the U.S. Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention  study include nationally known 
scientists, who say CDC officials exaggerated negative findings 
and buried contradictory data. The Spokane Spokesman Review 
reports today that, though he stands by  his science, even the 
chief researcher on the study admits its release was bungled. 	
Dr. Scott Davis, an epidemiologist with the Fred Hutchinson 
Cancer  Research Center in Seattle, told the newspaper, ``I 
couldn't agree more that we should have waited.'' 	Critics say the 
CDC jumped the gun by holding a public meeting to  release 
findings that were only preliminary. CDC officials said the decision 
to release the draft was made to  respond to public pressure from 
so-called ``downwinder'' communities near the plant, most of which 
report high levels of thyroid disease. ``We didn't want to release it 
in someone else's public meeting,''  said Dr. Paul Garbe, director of 
epidemiology in the CDC's radiation studies branch. The 10-year 
study concluded that 3,441 people born close to Hanford  from 
1940 to 1946 had no more thyroid disease than people living in 
eastern Washington communities slightly farther away. But the 
study has been shown to have a plethora of problems, ranging  
from mathematical uncertainties to errors in radiation doses to 
study subjects. ``The researchers clearly went over the line when 
they told people  they'd found no connection between Hanford's 
Cold War radiation releases of Iodine-131 and thyroid disease'' said 
Tim Connor, chairman of a CDC advisory committee on nuclear-
related health studies, told the newspaper. The CDC says it may 
schedule more community meetings to discuss the study. A final 
report is due by the end of the year. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html