Brattleboro Reformer
Groups to study VY radiation emissions
By CAROLYN LORIŽ
Reformer Staff
Wednesday, July
27, 2005 - BRATTLEBORO --
At the behest of local organizations, the Radiation and Public Health
Project will be examining the levels of Strontium-90 in baby teeth belonging
to children living within a 50-mile radius of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear
reactor in Vernon.
Strontium-90 is one of the many radioactive byproducts
of nuclear fission believed to cause cancer. Its release from power plants
is monitored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The project is being organized by the Citizens
Awareness Network and Traprock Peace Center of Deerfield, Mass., with financial
support from the New England Coalition. All three groups oppose nuclear
power and have been active in efforts to shut down Vermont Yankee.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Agnes Reynolds,
a registered nurse and a research associate with the Radiation and Public
Health Project, announced preliminary results of the study.
Since December 2004, 26 baby teeth have been collected
from counties all over Vermont and New Hampshire.
Nine of those teeth belonged to children living
in Windham County or Cheshire County in New Hampshire, while 17 where from
elsewhere.
According to Reynolds, the teeth from Windham
and Cheshire counties showed levels of Strontium-90 that were 61 percent
higher than the others.
Because the sample was so small, Reynolds said
the early findings are not statistically significant. The project hopes
to collect at least 100 teeth from Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Baby teeth would have the highest concentration
of the radioactive isotope, as not enough time has passed for it to decay.
Strontium-90 has a half-life of about 28 years.
It can be carried in wind and rain and enters the body through contaminated
food and cow's milk. Once in the body, it mimics calcium and gets deposited
in bones and teeth.
The Radiation and Public Health Project is a New
York based non-profit founded by scientists and physicians. The group has
been collecting baby teeth from around the country since 1998, the majority
of them from children living near nuclear power plants. More than 4,400
teeth have been tested for Strontium-90 levels.
According to the project's Web site, baby teeth
belonging to children living within 100 miles of a nuclear power plant
have significantly higher levels and that the overall levels have been
climbing throughout the country since the 1980s.
Those findings, however, have been disputed.
In July, 2004, the Nuclear Energy Institute, a
Washington, D.C.-based policy organization for the nuclear industry, issued
a report claiming that Strontium-90 releases from power plants are so low
they can hardly be detected.
The radioactive isotope is present in the environment,
the group claims, because of nuclear bomb tests carried out during the
Cold War.
Information posted at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Web site, supports that claim.
The federal regulator also states that the second
largest release of Strontium-90 occurred during the 1986 accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine, which could also account for
elevated levels found in baby teeth since then.
Robert Stirewalt, public information officer at
the Vermont Department of Health, said department staff were reviewing
material from the Radiation and Public Health Project and would state their
position today.
Tuesday's press conference was attended by state
Sens. Roderick Gander, D-Windham, and Jeanette White, D-Windham, and Rep.
Steve Darrow, D-Putney.
White said she hoped the Department of Health
would at least help get the word out about the study, through its various
state-wide programs.
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2983201,00.html#
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