Proud member of:
Designed for Internet Explorer
5.0 or Higher
Proud member of:
Designed for Internet Explorer
5.0 or Higher
Nuclear facilities may pose childhood leukemia risk
Extensive epidemiological research has provided limited evidence that the incidence of childhood leukemia increases near nuclear facilities. Those studies have puzzled experts, who say that exposures are too low to cause problems.
Now, the first meta-analysis of many previous studies has found a significant pattern of increased leukemia incidence and mortality extending at least 25 kilometers (km) from a nuclear facility. This evidence may spur reexamination of the issue just as a worldwide push to increase nuclear power is gathering steam.
Statistician Peter Baker, with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Omnicare Clinical Research, worked with MUSC colleague David Hoel to evaluate 17 studies conducted from 1984 to 1999. The data covered 136 facilities in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Spain, and the U.S., and included power plants and reprocessing, weapons, and uranium mining sites. Their study was published in July in the European Journal of Cancer Care (2007, 16, 355–363).
The researchers analyzed different age groups in two overlapping zones surrounding the nuclear facilities: out to 16 and 25 km. In infants through 9-year-old kids, they found a 14% increase in leukemia incidence within 16 km and a 21% increase within 25 km, indicating that the incidence was greater farther away. Similar, smaller increases occurred in children and young adults up to the age of 25. These data reveal an overall pattern of greater risk for children in the younger age group living between 16 and 25 km away from a facility. Death rates were also higher for younger children but were elevated closer to a facility.
The developing bodies of younger children may be more susceptible to cancer. This could explain the observed patterns of disease and age, but Baker has no hypothesis to explain the variable distance results. However, he says, the consistent findings from their analysis of such diverse facilities and studies suggest that the poorly understood link between nuclear facilities and childhood leukemia warrants further scrutiny.
