From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: PSR: High Soviet cancer rate near nuke plant
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 08:10:59 GMT

/** 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
(202) 785-3777

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."

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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)

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