Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, January 28, 2000 Page: 2 of 12
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hudspeth County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
PAGE 2, HUDSPETH COUNTY HERALD-Ddl Valley Review, JANUARY 28, 2000
Rich
MICHAEL DOWNEY
Special to The Globe and Mail
Thursday, December 2, 1999
Long after it should have begun to fade away, one of the worst
byproducts of the age continues to show up in our teeth, bones
and tissue in alarming amounts. And no one really knows why.
Back in the 1950s, its presence in baby teeth was blamed for a
surge in cancer among children, and public pressure led in 1963 to
then U.S. president John F. Kennedy’s decision to sign a nuclear
test-ban treaty with the Soviet Union.
Toronto -- Strontium 90, the atomic-age horror of 40 years ago, is
still with us -- deep within us. An element unknown to science until
spawned by the first nuclear-weapons tests, Sr90 continues to be
found in our very bones. Suddenly, children born 30 years after the
last bomb exploded in the atmosphere are exhibiting unexpectedly
significant amounts of Sr90.
A byproduct of nuclear fission, Sr90 is a marker for radiation
poisoning that damages DNA much more quickly, even before birth,
than any environmental pollutants. Nuclear particles remain lodged
often for life -- in human tissues, where they continue to give off
radiation and result in cancer, birth defects and premature aging.
And to make matters worse, industrial chemicals in water or milk are
doubly carcinogenic when in contact with Sr90.
The
the r
few i
fruit
of J<
seer
nigh
ft'lowt
mini
he v
(Pa
”' plea
sefoEE. W jzeroeM
TO fkWIOlMir FO? W
FUTOKE OF WE7 MATIOM,WE
WILL PWOTC’ CNE-W2UR SO
“"YJi'sSsS
Larr\
child
More
/Cone
Strontium-90 Levels Alarmingly High
in Children
Where all this new radiation comes from is a matter of debate. For
scientists like Dr. Jay Gould of the U.S. Radiation and Public Health
Project, there are only two possibilities: accidents of the kind that
damaged the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island, Pa., in 1976,
or radiation escaping from properly functioning facilities. Evidence,
he says, comes from data released by the U.S. Department of
Energy that shows a decline in the amount of Sr90 in adult bone and
diet from 1964 to 1970 - after above-ground bomb testing ended.
‘The amount declined on average by 16 percent each year,” he
says. “If this decline had continued, there would be only trace
amounts of Sr90 in baby teeth today.” Amounts should be barely
measurable -- about .3 or .4 picocuries per gram of calcium, he
says. This would be in keeping with the half-life of radioactive
material. In the case of Sr90, it is 29 years, or the time it takes for
half its radioactive matter to decay. Instead, scientists found
levels as high as 2 to 17 picocuries per gram of calcium, he says.
“This could not possibly be attributed to past bomb tests.”
Dr. Gould, who served on the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Science Advisory Board under President Jimmy Carter,
also says anyone living within 150 kilometres of a nuclear facility
has a greater risk of breast or prostate cancer. Recent studies
suggest people stand to suffer 20 times more cell damage than was
suspected at the time safety standards were set in the mid-1950s.
On the other hand, Dr. Murray Stewart, president and CEO of the
Canadian Nuclear Association, says any increase in radiation is
much more likely to be caused by previous above-ground testing.
Radiation released from Canadian plants is “infinitesimally small,”
he says. “Studies have never shown any link between commercial
reactors or commercial uranium to any incidence of cancer.”
Two nuclear workers at a research plant in Chalk River, Ont., would
disagree -- if they could. In 1981, they received full pensions as a
result of getting cancer caused by radiation exposure. One
pension went immediately to the widow of one of the workers and
other claims soon followed.
Atomic Energy Commission (AECL) spokesman Hal Tracy says the
nuclear industry in Canada now accepts the theory that there is no
safe threshold limit for radiation exposure. Any dose, no matter
how small, has the potential to cause harm and eventually there will
be evidence of this harm, he says. Tell that to the nuclear
neighbourhood. Fish near the Pickering nuclear plant on Lake
Ontario, and at the Bruce site on Lake Huron, have been found to
be radioactive - likely caused by the tonnes of mildly radioactive
water routinely flushed into the lakes. And Ontario Hydro admits
that some apples and onions grown near its powerplants are up to
100 times more radioactive than “normal,” yet are still well within
official “safe” limits.
In all, about 80 radioactive byproducts in some way manage to
reach the air, soil, water, where they remain active and eventually
enter our food. Radiation also works its questionable magic on
some elements found naturally in the environment. After a brush
with radiation, about 100 previously innocent chemicals take on
radioactive forms that before 1943 were found only in trace
quantities here and there in isolated places. Sr90 itself did not
exist in nature prior to the nuclear age. While some radiation
existed, only radionuclides or radiated atoms can be created via
atomic fission.
If all this is considered normal, then so is the problem of nuclear
waste, when removed from the reactor core, it is about a million
times more radioactive than when it was loaded. A freshly spent
fuel bundle is reckoned to be so deadly that a person standing only
a metre away would die of radiation poisoning within an hour. There
is no antidote to its toxicity and never will be. Each year, we
produce 100 tonnes of nuclear waste per plant and manage only to
isolate the stuff some place where it can be left to decay for
240,000 years, the half-life of plutonium.
The technique could hardly be described as safe. After all, the
Egyptian pharaohs were supposed to be entombed forever, too.
According to a 1991 AECL workshop, the industry could never
simply put waste out of mind. ‘We cannot think we have done a
perfect job, seal it, and forget about it. . . Future generations must
be able to repair the facility.”
None of this sounds very encouraging to Dr. Gould. His study
group, also known as the Tooth Fairy project, has been measuring
the presence of Sr90 in the baby teeth of American children born
some 20 years ago, and early results show levels to be “100 times
higher than we expected.”
Some 1,500 teeth have been collected from parents who had kept
the teeth as keepsakes. The collection includes 550 teeth from
children born between 1979 and 1982. These teeth had the same
level of Sr90 as that found in a similar study conducted in 1953,
says Dr. Gould. Colleague Dr. Janet Sherman, a Virginia internal-
medicine specialist and toxicologist, says the results are
frightening. “We’re finding that Sr90 levels in baby teeth of children
born since 1990 are reaching levels that were in existence during
the above-ground testing years, which is very scary,” she says.
The finding is not entirely unprecedented. Tests on baby teeth in
Germany after fallout from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl,
Ukraine, in 1986 showed a tenfold increase in Sr90. Fallout also
reached North America, says Dr. Gould. Radiation carried in wind
patterns and released in rainfall, caused profound effects upon
birth weights and auto-immune functions, he says. For Dr. Gould,
who next wants to test the teeth of Canadian children, Chernobyl
and other similar accidents all point to responsibility for the
continued presence of Sr90.
For the moment, his Tooth Fairy project offers no solutions, only
deeply disturbing questions. Long after it should have diminished
in potency, Sr90 promises to be a terrifying threat well into the next
century.
(Michael Downey is a Toronto writer specializing in science.)
HOW STRONTIUM 90 STRIKES.....
Strontium 90, and other radioactive material, gets into
vegetation, including grass and vegetables. If cows eat tainted
grass, their milk picks up radioactive material which stays active
for years. “The mother consumes milk, vegetables and cheese and
the Sr90 goes up the food chain, says Dr. Janet Sherman of the
Tooth Fairy Project. “These kids are getting it in utero (in the womb)
... So if you’re talking about healthy (nuclear) workers, they may
not drink much milk. And they’re already developed.”
Children are vulnerable in a way that adults are not. Radioactive
particles can settle in any part of our bodies; but children knit Sr90
into growing bones and teeth when their bodies mistake it for
for calcium. Dr. Sherman sa (
children who exhibit high leve sup
of Sr90 show a higher-tha
normal rate of a rare form qu
bone cancer. Other effects a pai
be' delayed for years or genet a (
tions. Radiation takes the foil ap|
of high-energy rays and pat for
cles. Beta rays for example, a' cor
fast electrons that lose eneri jntc
as they pass through our cell ma
The transferred energy disrupt “f
chemical bonds; the strands i the
our DNA break. Improper n the
joining of these DNA enc oft<
causes key sections of DNA bril
be lost. While some cells di got
others -- forever changed sal
become altered blueprints li rigl
mutated or cancerous cell pre
http://www.globeandmail.com/ the
Clean as “
molasses D,
Officials in
Williamsport, Pa.,
are using an uncon-
ventional way to TI
clean up toxic waste:
molasses. Injected in
contaminated ground 'I
water, molasses F
helps eradicate ~
certain pollutants.
The pollution S
problems in =
Williamsport started —
more than 10 years i -
ago, when an air- VJ
plane engine factory
left high levels of
chemicals and heavy
metals in the local
water.
Perseverance
It does not matter how slowly'
go, so long as you do not stop
—Confucius
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Lynch, Mary Louise. Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, January 28, 2000, newspaper, January 28, 2000; Dell City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1178035/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .