NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9869

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: PSR: High Soviet cancer rate near nuke plant
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/** psr.bulletins: 54.0 **/
** Topic: Chelyabinsk Research Data **
** Written  9:35 am  Jan  7, 1993 by psrnatl in cdp:psr.bulletins **
- MORE -

FOR RELEASE:
CONTACT:  Emily Green December 29, 1992
[phone]

RADIATION EXPOSURES FROM RUSSIAN BOMB PLANT LINKED TO CANCER;
DATA KEPT SECRET FOR DECADES
Doctors Warn Against DOE Involvement in Future Research

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Previously suppressed research on radiation
exposures published this week in PSR Quarterly:  A Journal of
Medicine and Global Survival, reveals new evidence of increased
leukemia rates among a half-million citizens living or having
lived in proximity to the largest nuclear weapons production
facility in the former Soviet Union.

    The study is the first-ever published research on
    radiation exposure in the Chelyabinsk region, site of the
    plutonium production facility known as "Mayak."  It shows
    increased incidence of and death from leukemia among a
    cohort of 28,000 people exposed to radiation from the
    facility.  The data were collected by Russian physician
    and researcher Dr. Mira Kossenko and, until this year,
    kept secret by the Soviet government from the exposed
    individuals and the international scientific and medical
    community.

    "These data are alarming because they reveal the very
    serious environmental contamination and health threat
    created by the Soviet nuclear weapons complex.  But they
    also have implications for the U.S. nuclear weapons
    complex as a testimony to the corrupting power of
    government secrecy," stated Dr. H. Jack Geiger, chair of a
    Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) task force on
    radiation risks.

    "While the Soviets conducted epidemiologic research and
    rigidly suppressed the results, the U.S. Department of
    Energy has simply not done comparable research on
    populations surrounding nuclear weapons plants, or done it
    with such limited dosimetry and flawed methodology as to
    render meaningless our government's repeated assurances of
    safety," Geiger stated

    Three incidents of massive radioactive contamination
    attributed to poor design or lack of risk assessment at
    Mayak resulted in the exposure of an estimated 500,000
    residents to varying levels of external and internal
    irradiation.  The first was the intentional disposal of
    radioactive wastes into the Techa river from 1949 through
    1956; the second, the explosion of a high-level
    radioactive waste storage tank in 1957; and the third, the
    dispersal of contaminated dust and soil when a storage
    lake dried up during the unusually dry spring of 1967.
    Dr. Kossenko's investigation is restricted to radiation
    exposures during the period 1949 to 1956.
Kossenko Research Results/Page 2 of 3

    The Kossenko study focuses on exposures to long-lived
    radionuclides (strontium 90 and cesium 137), and is
    limited to  one disease:  leukemia.  The research shows
    the excess in leukemia arose between 5 to 20 years after
    initial exposure and indicates a dose-response
    relationship (i.e. increase in risk in relation to
    increased levels and rates of exposure).

    "It is important to note that this is not an individual
    followup study based on analyses of the relationship
    between radiation dose estimates and individual outcome
    determination (as current studies of radiation exposures
    at the U.S. DOE's Hanford Nuclear Reservation are
    attempting to do).  Further work should strive to obtain
    individual-based risk estimates, if possible, that would
    allow for a more accurate characterization of the
    dose-response relationship at low to moderate doses,"
    stated Dr. Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred
    Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of
    Washington.  "This work is just the beginning in terms of
    the potential to include other study populations and types
    of exposures," Davis added.

    Another reviewer, Dr. David Rush, head of the Epidemiology
    Program at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on
    Aging at Tufts University, notes that the data and
    research are "unpolished".  He points out that the
    Kossenko findings "are based on questionable exposure
    estimates collected by Soviet Health and Defense
    Ministries.  There have been no independent outside peer
    review and the research techniques and interpretations
    have been developed in isolation and in secret."

    "Future work involving these data must therefore involve
    independent verification by the families and caregivers of
    the exposed," stated Rush.

    The U.S. DOE has already signed a preliminary agreement to
    fund and participate in research on the Chelyabinsk data.
    "The U.S. and Russian government agencies now involved in
    research on the Chelyabinsk radiation exposure data are
    not without their own political motives concerning the
    outcomes of the research," said Rush.

    "We are concerned that DOE involvement presents a conflict
    of interest and that if the U.S. government is to be
    involved in collaborative work on the Chelyabinsk data,
    the Department of Health and Human Services should be the
    lead agency, not the DOE -- the source of U.S. weapons
    production risks," declared Rush.

    In May, 1992, PSR's Physicians Task Force on the Health
    Risks of Nuclear Weapons Production concluded a two-year
    examination of the record of epidemiologic studies on the
    workforce of the DOE's nuclear weapons production complex.
    The task force found the DOE research to be "seriously
    flawed, underfunded in relation to the studies that are
    needed, and burdened by an intrinsic conflict of
    interest."

- 30 -

Physicians for Social Responsibility is a national organization of
over 20,000 health professionals and supporters working to prevent
nuclear war, protect the environment, and re-order national
spending priorities.

Kossenko Research Results/Page 3 of 3

CONTACTS:

    H. Jack Geiger, MD
        Arthur C. Logan Professor of Community Medicine
        City University of New York Medical School, New
        York 212/650-6860 (w) 718/855-5503 (h)

    David Rush, MD
        Head, Epidemiology Program, Human Nutrition
        Research Center on Aging Tufts University, Boston,
        MA 617/556-3320 (w) 617/547-8467 (h) 305/782-7874
        (Dec. 22-28)

    Bruce Amundson, MD
        Senior Scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
        Center, Seattle, WA Co-investigator, Hanford
        Thyroid Disease Study 206/667-5733 (w)
        206/546-2937 (h)

    Scott Davis, Ph.D
        Member, Program in Epidemiology Fred Hutchinson
        Cancer Research Center, Seattle WA University of
        Washington, Seattle, WA 206/667-5733 (w)

** End of text from cdp:psr.bulletins **