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Date:         Sat, 9 Jan 1993 19:39:00 EST
From:         CATHYF@EARLHAM.BITNET
Subject:      Russian bomb plant & cancer

X-News: yang.earlham.edu misc.activism.progressive:168
From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject:PSR: High Soviet cancer rate near nuke plant
Date: 9 Jan 93 08:10:59 GMT
Message-ID:<1993Jan9.081059.10722@mont.cs.missouri.edu>

/** 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."

- 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 **
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