Re: Tooth fairy project

[Mrtgoldman@aol.com]

An NEI  INFOWIRE this afternoon reports the following:
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‘Tooth Fairy' Project Report Claims Radioactive
Material Found in Children's Teeth

The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) today claimed that
strontium-90 "has been found in the teeth of children at levels equal to those
of the middle 1950591 when above-ground tests of atomic weapons were
conducted.

An RPHP news release states that the group has released an "initial report".
on its so-called Tooth Fairy study alleging that "Americans continued to
absorb radiation for years after atmospheric testing ended in 1980."
Comprehensive information on claims linking health effects to low levels of
radiation can be found in the Newsroom section of the Nuclear Energy
Institutes Internet site at http://www.nei.org

RPHP states that "higher-than-expected levels of radiation were found in 515
teeth measured thus far, most of them for children born in the states of New
York, New Jersey and Florida. Many of the areas where teeth were collected
are near nuclear power plants with a history of unusually large radiation
releases." The news release does not, however, name specific nuclear power
plants.

RPHP researchers "attributed some of the new radioactive fallout to the
accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979 and at the
Chernobyl reactor in Russia [sic] in 1986. In addition, they noted that state
and federal records show a large amount of officially reported airborne
emissions during the early 1980s from four nuclear reactors located in the
vicinity of Suffolk County [New York], the area. from which the majority of
the RPHP  teeth were collected."

RPHP also claims that "researchers correlated one increase in strontium-90
during the 1980s in Suffolk County, N.Y., to a corresponding rise in childhood
lukemia and cancer." RPHF does not name a facility in this specific
allegation.

Dr. Ernest Sternglass, co-director of the study, states: "The early results 
are
quite alarming. The levels of strontium-90 should have dropped down to
near zero once humankind stopped exploding nuclear weapons in the
atmosphere. Instead the levels stayed essentially the same as during the
bomb-test years, or in some areas they even increased. Regardless of the
precise source of the radiation, it is clear that more investigation is 
urgently
needed. It is especially urgent given that strontiurn-90 is a know carcinogen
and a marker for other short-lived fission products and simply should not be
present at all in our children's teeth."

RPHP has called on the federal government to "conduct a national-scale
study of strontium-90 in the environment." The group says that private
foundations have agreed to help finance the collection and analysis of 5,000
baby teeth over the next two years.
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