Setting the record straight on Three Mile Island
(The following letter is by Three Mile Island Alert Chairman Eric Epstein. It's of obvious interest to residents of the Hometown area, who live 80 miles downwind from the site of America's worst nuclear disaster, and who are also suffering from an unusually high rate of polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer that's been linked to low-level radiation exposure. For a PDF version of the letter complete with footnotes, click on the title below.)
Three Mile Island Had Lasting Consequences
August 7, 2007
Fortune Magazine
Dear Editor:
I was deeply disappointed in David Whitford's casual dismissal of the impact the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident had on our community, i.e. Rethinking Three Mile Island. Without supplying any hard data, Mr. Whitford regurgitates the mantra of the nuclear renaissance: "But guess what? No one died at Three Mile Island. No one even got hurt. Hard evidence simply does not exist that any living thing, animal or vegetable, was significantly harmed by the small amount of radiation released during the accident. Even in the most extreme cases, the exposure was less than anyone living in the area receives from natural sources."
Perhaps Mr. Whitford was referring to the University of Pittsburgh (1) health study which was essentially a recitation of discredited protocol and disputed data. Rereleased on October 31, 2002, the study actually acknowledged an increase in lymphatic and blood cancers among men.
Also, as in previous health studies relating to TMI, this survey relied on government and nuclear industry sponsored health studies which were completed in the early 1980s. These studies were based on inaccurate dose projections, did not factor data regarding the severity and conditions of the core meltdown (2), and ignored prevailing weather conditions and wind patterns in March-April, 1979.
None of these studies evaluate the health impact to members of our community who defueled Three Mile Island. In fact, TMIs owners choose not to maintain a health or cancer registry despite the fact, that from 1979-1989, 5,000 cleanup workers received 'measurable doses' of radiation exposure. (3)
Moreover, the University of Pittsburgh's Study relied heavily on the much maligned Pennsylvania Department of Health's 22-year-old survey released in September, 1985. That Study's protocol was ridiculed and criticized by epidemiologists at Harvard and Penn State for diluting increases in cancer by expanding the population base to include people living outside of the ten-mile study-zone. (October 1985.) (4)
A great deal of radiation was released by the core melt at TMI. The President's Commission estimated about 15 million curies of radiation were released into the atmosphere. A review of dose assessments, conducted by Dr. Jan Beyea, (National Audubon Society; 1984) (5) estimated that from 276 to 63,000 person-rem were delivered to the general population within 50 miles of TMI. More recently, David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated between 40 million curies and 100 million curies escaped during the accident.
The plant's owners, codefendants and insurers have paid over $84 million in health, economic and evacuation claims, including a $1.1 million settlement for a baby born with Down's Syndrome. (6) In June 2000, the United States Supreme Court remanded 1,990 unsettled health suits from the TMI-accident back to Federal Court. (GPU v. Abrams; Dolan v. GPU.) (7)
In August 1996, a study by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill authored by Dr. Steven Wing reported that "...there were reports of erythema, hair loss, vomiting, and pet death near TMI at the time of the accident...Accident doses were positively associated with cancer incidence. Associations were largest for leukemia, intermediate for lung cancer, and smallest for all cancers combined...Inhaled radionuclide contamination could differentially impact lung cancers, which show a clear dose-related increase." (8)
Today, TMI-2 remains a high-level radioactive waste in the middle of the Susquehanna River. There was no decommissioning fund established for TMI at the time of the accident. (9) The site of the nations worst commercial nuclear accident has not been decontaminated nor decommissioned. There has not been a human entry in the basement of the reactor building since March, 1979.
TMI is an accident without an ending. Next time you drive through our community, stop for a while, and read the fine print on the nuclear label.
Sincerely,
Eric Joseph Epstein
4100 Hillsdale Road
Harrisburg, PA 17112
(717)-541-1101 Phone
ericepstein@comcast.net
Mr. Epstein is the Chairman of Three Mile Island Alert , Inc., tmia.com, a safe-energy organization based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and founded in 1977. TMIA monitors Peach Bottom, Susquehanna, and Three Mile Island nuclear generating stations.
Three Mile Island Had Lasting Consequences
August 7, 2007
Fortune Magazine
Dear Editor:
I was deeply disappointed in David Whitford's casual dismissal of the impact the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident had on our community, i.e. Rethinking Three Mile Island. Without supplying any hard data, Mr. Whitford regurgitates the mantra of the nuclear renaissance: "But guess what? No one died at Three Mile Island. No one even got hurt. Hard evidence simply does not exist that any living thing, animal or vegetable, was significantly harmed by the small amount of radiation released during the accident. Even in the most extreme cases, the exposure was less than anyone living in the area receives from natural sources."
Perhaps Mr. Whitford was referring to the University of Pittsburgh (1) health study which was essentially a recitation of discredited protocol and disputed data. Rereleased on October 31, 2002, the study actually acknowledged an increase in lymphatic and blood cancers among men.
Also, as in previous health studies relating to TMI, this survey relied on government and nuclear industry sponsored health studies which were completed in the early 1980s. These studies were based on inaccurate dose projections, did not factor data regarding the severity and conditions of the core meltdown (2), and ignored prevailing weather conditions and wind patterns in March-April, 1979.
None of these studies evaluate the health impact to members of our community who defueled Three Mile Island. In fact, TMIs owners choose not to maintain a health or cancer registry despite the fact, that from 1979-1989, 5,000 cleanup workers received 'measurable doses' of radiation exposure. (3)
Moreover, the University of Pittsburgh's Study relied heavily on the much maligned Pennsylvania Department of Health's 22-year-old survey released in September, 1985. That Study's protocol was ridiculed and criticized by epidemiologists at Harvard and Penn State for diluting increases in cancer by expanding the population base to include people living outside of the ten-mile study-zone. (October 1985.) (4)
A great deal of radiation was released by the core melt at TMI. The President's Commission estimated about 15 million curies of radiation were released into the atmosphere. A review of dose assessments, conducted by Dr. Jan Beyea, (National Audubon Society; 1984) (5) estimated that from 276 to 63,000 person-rem were delivered to the general population within 50 miles of TMI. More recently, David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated between 40 million curies and 100 million curies escaped during the accident.
The plant's owners, codefendants and insurers have paid over $84 million in health, economic and evacuation claims, including a $1.1 million settlement for a baby born with Down's Syndrome. (6) In June 2000, the United States Supreme Court remanded 1,990 unsettled health suits from the TMI-accident back to Federal Court. (GPU v. Abrams; Dolan v. GPU.) (7)
In August 1996, a study by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill authored by Dr. Steven Wing reported that "...there were reports of erythema, hair loss, vomiting, and pet death near TMI at the time of the accident...Accident doses were positively associated with cancer incidence. Associations were largest for leukemia, intermediate for lung cancer, and smallest for all cancers combined...Inhaled radionuclide contamination could differentially impact lung cancers, which show a clear dose-related increase." (8)
Today, TMI-2 remains a high-level radioactive waste in the middle of the Susquehanna River. There was no decommissioning fund established for TMI at the time of the accident. (9) The site of the nations worst commercial nuclear accident has not been decontaminated nor decommissioned. There has not been a human entry in the basement of the reactor building since March, 1979.
TMI is an accident without an ending. Next time you drive through our community, stop for a while, and read the fine print on the nuclear label.
Sincerely,
Eric Joseph Epstein
4100 Hillsdale Road
Harrisburg, PA 17112
(717)-541-1101 Phone
ericepstein@comcast.net
Mr. Epstein is the Chairman of Three Mile Island Alert , Inc., tmia.com, a safe-energy organization based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and founded in 1977. TMIA monitors Peach Bottom, Susquehanna, and Three Mile Island nuclear generating stations.
Labels: radiation
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