Re: Group Seeks Teeth For Radiation Study

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 21:36 16.02.1999 -0600, you wrote:
>Group Seeks Teeth For Radiation Study - (STATEWIDE) -- A New 
>York-based group is looking for baby teeth. But the Tooth Fairy 
>Project organized by the Radiation and Public Health Project has a 
>practical purpose... to determine whether children who live near 
>New Jersey nuclear plants have been absorbing radioactive 
>strontium-90. Letters have gone out to Ocean County residents 
>living near the Oyster Creek generating station. The group is also 
>collecting teeth from Salem County, near Salem One and Two. The 
>operators of the New Jersey reactors say that there is little danger 
>from radiation. But Doctor Jay Gould, who is organizing the study, 
>says the group has found higher rates of breast cancer among 
>people who live near reactors in other states. 
>
...................................................

Does anybody understand the link between Sr-90 in teeth and breast cancer?
Studies on Sr-90 in teeth have been undertaken for instance in Hungary some
time ago, but this was to reconstruct the pattern of Sr-90 distribution
following the atmospheric nuclear tests. I bet that a good radiochemist
will find Sr-90 in the teeth - let us say, 100$, though I could become
rich, if anybody would accept my offer..... Sr-90 is abundant everywhere in
the world due to the atmospheric tests of the fifties and the sixties, less
in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern. I cannot read anything in
this message, how the background - whatever this is - will be established.
Without such considerations the whole project is useless and only wastes
taxpayers money. Even if there would be enhanced (not extreme) levels of
Sr-90 in the areas close to NPPs they could not be verified due to the
reasons below. 

We have undertaken an interesting research to retrospectively determine the
Sr-90 contamination in Austria by using red deer antlers as a bioindicator.
What we basicly found was in most cases the characteristic curve with a big
peak in 1963/64, similar to the curves one finds for C-14 and T in the
atmosphere or in wine, in which we have checked it. But there were
different smaller peaks in later years and the absolut height of both the
peaks and the concentration of Sr-90 in different areas at the same time
differed enourmously. Since Austria is a small country these different
areas were not so far apart. 

I conclude that this project - if it is really done the way  how it is
described in this note - is most probably useless, will not yield any
reliable information either way. Maybe the purpose of this study is to find
small amounts (no surprise) and use this as an argument against nuclear
power. We have enough experience, how this is done. 

Is there anybody who has done similar work on Sr-90 or knows about similar
work for retrospectively assessing the Sr-90-contamination? For more
information about our Sr-90 work, please contact me privately.

Regards,

Franz



Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schönhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Department of Radiochemistry
Kinderspitalg. 15
A-1095 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-40 490 27820
e-mail: schoenhofer@baluf.via.at
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