Published in the Asbury Park Press
By LAWRENCE R. HAJNA
STAFF WRITER
MELISSA MEDFORD never gave much thought to the Salem nuclear reactors, located about 12 miles from her house in Salem County.
But the Elsinboro resident is now serving as local coordinator for a study that is trying to determine whether children living near nuclear power plants absorb a cancer-causing radioactive element into their teeth and bones.
Since last week, the 41-year-old Sunday school teacher and sales executive has been collecting baby teeth from local residents for a health study by the Radiation and Public Health Project, an anti-nuclear group based in New York City.
The group's Tooth Fairy Project, led by the center's Dr. Jay Gould, is trying to determine whether the radioactive element strontium-90 is being absorbed by children who live around four nuclear power plants in New Jersey and a nuclear research facility on Long Island.
Public Service Electric and Gas Co., owner of the three-reactor Salem complex in Lower Alloways Creek, said strontium-90 can only be released if the plant's uranium fuel rods were damaged. That hasn't happened, spokeswoman Trish DuBois said.
Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said reactors are allowed to release small amounts of radioactive gases as part of normal operations. NRC spokesman Neil A.Sheehan wasn't certain if strontium-90 typically is released from the Salem complex.
In any case, it would take a large accident for any radiation from a nuclear plant to pose a health threat, he said. The American Cancer Society has never found any link between nuclear power plants and cancer.
Gould, however, says a study he performed several years ago shows that people who live within 100 miles of nuclear reactors have a higher death rate from breast cancer. Now he's trying to prove that strontium-90 from the reactors is entering the body and triggering cancers.
Gould calls strontium-90 one of the most deadly elements released by nuclear power plants. The chemical structure of strontium-90 is very similar to that of calcium, fooling the body into absorbing and storing it in the bones and teeth where it continually emits radiation, Gould said.
His team is sending letters signed by actor Alec Baldwin to 10,000 residents of Long Island, where concerns have been raised about the release of the radioactive element from the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The group also is sending letters to 5,000 residents near Ocean County's Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in Lacey. Researchers have been trying to determine what's causing a high number of childhood cancers in the nearby Toms River area.
The Salem generating station is one of the largest nuclear power complexes in the nation. Medford says area residents have expressed concerns about childhood cancers.
"There's a lot of people out there with children who have cancer. They're upset," said Medford, who has a 14-year-old daughter. "We're not claiming anything right now. We just want some answers."
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: February 16, 1999
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