Scientific Studies
More than a dozen major, independent studies have assessed the possible health effects of the TMI Unit 2 accident in 1979, on the people and the environment around Three Mile Island. The studies have found no cancer link to TMI.
A collection of some of the studies, and their findings:
- A 1981 study by the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported that if the accident had any effect on infant death rates, there would have been significant increase in the six months after the accident. Instead, the infant death rate was lower than normal.
- A 1989 study by the Pennsylvania Department of Health found no significant abnormalities in cancer mortality or incidence among residents of selected communities near the plant.
- In 1990, the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health released the results of a two-year study of cancer data in 107 U.S. counties that contained, or were adjacent to, major nuclear facilitates that had begun operations before 1982. Among the counties were York, Lancaster and Dauphin near Three Mile Island. The study, which compared cancer mortality rates in the 107 counties containing or adjacent to a nuclear facility with rates in counties with no nuclear facilities, found no increased cancer mortality for people living near the nuclear installations. The study also found no evidence that leukemia for any age was linked to routine operations at the TMI reactors or to the accident at TMI Unit 2.
Scientific studies have also demonstrated that there is no link between an increase in Strontium-90 found in baby teeth and proximity of these children to nuclear power plants.
Strontium-90 primarily comes from fallout from former nuclear weapons testing around the world, rather than from commercial nuclear power plants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates a nationwide network for monitoring radioactivity in the environment. The agency's measurements indicate that although Strontium-90 levels have declined since atmospheric nuclear weapons testing ended, the radioisotope is still detected in the environment, especially in milk, so one would expect to find it in baby teeth.
Activist organizations have been found to use trumped-up statistics in trying to prove that there is a link between Strontium-90 in baby teeth and proximity of these children to nuclear power plants.
The EPA has made the following remarks in connection with Strontium- 90:
- "Nuclear power plant emissions of Strontium-90 are inconsequential compared with other man-made sources and should be undetectable in deciduous teeth."
- The Chicago Tribune asked the chief of the Division of Epidemiological Studies at the Illinois Department of Health to investigate the claims. The division, after reviewing the data, discounted the claims. As a result, the paper labeled the organization's manipulation of data "fishy," and editorialized:
Other independent findings have included:
- In a study published in 1990, the National Institutes of Health looked at cancer rates and proximity to 62 nuclear power plants. It found no connection.
- Dr. Joshua Lipsman, the health commissioner in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Indian Point nuclear plant is located said, "We found a number of scientific errors both in measurement and process in their [the activist organization's] proposals."