NH #538: Baby Teeth Hold Key to Illinois, Michigan Nuclear Reactor Radiation Exposure - Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano​​​​‌‍​‍​‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌​‌‍​‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍​‍​‍​​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​​‍‍​‍​‍‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍​‌‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‍‌‍‍​‌‍‌‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌‌​​‍‍‌‍​‌‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‍‌​‍​​‌​​‌​​​​‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍​‌‍‌‌​‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‍‌‍​​‌‌‍‍​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​​‍‌‌​​‌​​‌​‍‌‌​​‍‌​‌‍​‍‌‌​​‍‌​‌‍‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍​‌‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‍‌‍‍​‌‍‌‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌‌​​‍‍‌‍​‌‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‍‌​‍​​‌​​‌​​​​‍‌‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍​‌‍‌‌​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​​‍​‍‌‌

Libbe HaLevy

00:00:01

Nuclear radiation health damage. While the nuclear industry likes to label the release of radiation from its power reactors, as quote, not significant and direct the public’s attention elsewhere, some people have made it their life’s mission to watch what’s happening with these releases, compile government medical data and extrapolate results. Thus, when one contemplates the health damage done by the dressed a nuclear reactors in Grundy county, Illinois, only 43 miles from downtown Chicago at a genuine expert, an epidemiologist who has crunched the official numbers for decades tells you.

00:00:45

We found that in the late sixties and the early seventies, just as the two Dresden reactors are being built. The Grundy county cancer death rate was 13% below the us. Every following decade, the gap got smaller until Grundy rate exceeded in the U S and in the most recent decade, the cancer death rate is 15% higher than the us. So Grundy county has gone from a low cancer county to a high cancer county. We also found with in terms of deaths in the last 30 years, the cancer death rate in children and adolescents, people who died by age 24 was 38% above the U S, which is the highest excess of any county in Illinois. Cancer is a red flag for nuclear powers, health damage. A childhood cancer is a double red flag for damage because it is the exposure to the fetus and the infant and the young child that is strongest and most hazardous.

Libbe HaLevy

00:01:46

Well when Joseph of radiation and public health project reveals that kind of correlation between nuclear reactor operations and cancer deaths. And he has statistics for more than just the Dresden reactors in Illinois. You know, that no matter where you are, you are stuck in that dangerous seat. The one that we all share,

Announcer

00:02:13

Claire hot seat, what are those people thinking? Nuclear hot seat. What have those boys been braking? sinking time to act is shrinking, but nuclear Hotsy, it’s the bomb.

Libbe HaLevy

00:02:44

Welcome to nuclear hot seat, the weekly international news magazine, keeping you up to date on all things nuclear from a different perspective. My name is Leiby Halevi. I am the producer and host as well as a survivor of the nuclear accident at three mile island from just one mile away. So I know what can happen when those nuclear so-called experts get it wrong. This week, some startling new information on cancer rates in proximity to nuclear reactors. This from Joseph, who is an epidemiologist and the executive director of radiation and public health project in New York. We’ll hear about the Dresden reactors in Illinois, farmy reactor in Michigan, near Detroit, and then you’ll find out how you, yes, you can participate in an exciting new study of radiation health damage all by providing a few of your children’s baby teeth. We will also have nuclear news from around the world numnuts of the week for outstanding nuclear bone headedness, and more honest nuclear information than you’ll ever be able to get an, a timely manner through the us postal service.

Libbe HaLevy

00:03:59

All of it coming up in just a few moments today is Tuesday, October 12th, 2021. And here is this week’s nuclear news from a different perspective, opening with this sad story that sister Meagan rice died on October 10th of congestive heart failure at the age of 91 in the summer of 2012, the then 82 year old Roman Catholic sister hiked over a wittered region, east Tennessee, and with two fellow peace activists intruded into a government facility nicknamed the Fort Knox of uranium on its exterior wall, the trio splashed human blood as a symbol of the cost of war and spray painted biblical message such as the fruit of justice is peace. Sister rice had her companions, Michael Wally and Greg Porsche Obad declared this an act of protest and love in the service of a higher law. But the three were convicted of intending to endanger the national defense.

Libbe HaLevy

00:05:05

They each spent about two years in prison, one release and vindication on appeal in 2015 and helped inspire other activists and works of journalistic nonfiction. The cause of death was congestive heart failure. Sister Meagan rice was 91 years old in Virginia. The Supreme court of that state refused to hear an appeal on her uranium mining ban that was put to it by Virginia uranium incorporated. The company asked the court to either order the Commonwealth to let the UI exercise its quote fundamental property, right, and quote to mine uranium, or to compensate them for taking away those property rights. But in 2019, the us Supreme court upheld Virginia’s uranium moratorium ruling in a six to three majority that Virginia has the right to regulate mining activities and the Commonwealth’s moratorium on uranium mining now of almost four decades, duration protects the safety and wellbeing of Virginians, their lands, and their waterways.

Libbe HaLevy

00:06:13

As of October 8th, the nuclear regulatory commission has issued an order suspending the general license authority under the NRC regulations to export radioactive material and a deuterium to China general nuclear. The United States has been exporting radioactive materials and deuterium to China who knew and who thought this was a good idea in the first place, two articles that we’ll be linking to on the website. The first is on Hanford. It’s actually a three-part report on Hanford’s dirty secret, and it’s not 56 million gallons of nuclear waste. This is put out by the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons or I cam w.org. And it’s a clear, concise overview of the problems at that site, which is deemed the most radioactive in the United States and the most radioactive in the Western hemisphere and another excellent article by Linda Pence Gunter that appeared in both counterpunch and now and beyond nuclear international, the Tennessee valley authorities, bell font cancellation as being just the latest in a long line of nuclear debacles, both will be up on the website, nuclear hot seat.com under this episode, number 5 38, Korean oceans and fisheries minister moon Seong high yoke vowed to strengthen the monitoring of water and Marine products for possible radioactivity from Japan’s Fukushima, Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Libbe HaLevy

00:07:50

He stated we will expand radioactivity monitoring at our shores to prevent contaminated water coming from the Fukushima plant and strengthened inspections of Marine safety tests and check the origin of country that products are imported from the international atomic energy agency. Also plans to strengthen related measures. This month, the IAEA will inspect the contamination being released at unit one of Fukushima Daiichi and its effects on the ocean, but that doesn’t stop Japan from going all numnuts on it. And that’s why in terms of nuclear bone headedness, heres

Libbe HaLevy

00:08:41

I think Japan’s industry minister Koichi huggy UDA on Sunday, October 10, pledged to promote the decommissioning of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and recovery of the area as a top priority. During his first visit to the prefecture since assuming office, he also told Fukushima governor muscle Uchi body and the mayors of the municipalities hosting the power plant that his ministry will make its quote unquote best efforts to release radioactive water from the facility hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March of 2011. The discharge of this water is now planned for the spring of 2023. And the mayors of Futaba and Oklahoma have urged him to take effective measures against the reputational damage associated with the planned discharge of the water. Let’s unpack this one, shall we? First of all, decommissioning, the word that is used most frequently in connection with Fukushima decommissioning can only be done on an intact nuclear reactor that has been in commission.

Libbe HaLevy

00:09:52

This is not an intact reactor or three intact reactors. It is the wreckage of three reactors that had meltdowns. So it’s not decommissioning some nuclear reactors. It’s mitigating a radioactive disaster site. Secondly, in the original copy, it never referred to radioactive water. It referred to treated water. Well, they can treat the water to take out a lot of radio nuclides, but there is no way to separate radioactive tritium from non-radioactive water. It’s like trying to separate water from water can’t be done. And that’s why the water is being stored. And just because it’s been stored for a long time, and they’ve got a lot of it is no reason for them to dump it into the sea. They always call it the sea as opposed to calling it the Pacific ocean, which makes it as large as it actually is. And as for being urged to take effective measures against the reputational damage associated with the plan discharge of the treated water, they’re asking for propaganda and lies and positive stories, and let’s distract the public’s attention with bright, shiny objects and promises of Nirvana to take their eyes and minds off the genuine concerns associated with the plan discharge of radioactive water into the Pacific ocean.

Libbe HaLevy

01:11:18

This is the way they do it. They work on the wording. They put in distracting phrases. They diminish the importance of the important facts, which is this is tritium contaminated, radioactive water being put into the Pacific ocean. Pretty soon they’ll come up with the D word. They will say it will dilute the radioactive content when it’s not going to do that, it’s going to disperse the content. In other words, if something is diluted, it becomes weaker, but all it takes is one Adam of a radioactive substance to be dangerous. It never becomes not dangerous. So it doesn’t dilute. What they would be doing is dispersing it into the ocean, which will not make anyone safer. It will be more dangerous and it deserves to have the reputation it has, which is as something that is dirty and wrong should not be done. We should not be manipulated to taking our eyes off the prize on this thing, which is they’ve got to figure out something to do with that water other than put it into the ocean, contaminate the food chain and put all of us at greater risk from the radio activity. And that’s why, and that’s why Fukushima industry minister Koichi huggy UDA. You are this week’s no.

Announcer

01:12:42

Okay. Your hot seat,

Libbe HaLevy

01:12:46

A series of updates from the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, or I can, Chile has become the 56th state to ratify the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. More good news, Swedish insurance group lands for SAC ringer. I hope I did that, right, which has over 40 billion in assets has named the treaty on the prevention of nuclear weapons in its policy. As a reason to not invest in nuclear weapons businesses after receiving a letter from Hiroshima survivor and long time I can activist SESCO Thurlow the new Japanese prime minister said. I believe that the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons is a very important treaty for a world without nuclear weapons. This is definitely a good sign from a nuclear allied country that previously had dismissed the treaty. We’ll have more from ICANN next week in Russia to rusty nuclear submarines will be raised from the seabed of the barons and Cara seas and brought to a shipyard for safety commissioning.

Libbe HaLevy

01:13:56

At least that’s what they’re planning on the submarine known as K 1 59 sank in late August, 2003, while being towed to a shipyard north of Murmansk a joint Norwegian Russian expedition examined the site in 2014 and concluded that at that point, no leakage had so far occurred from the reactors to the surrounding Marine environment. However, the bad shape of the Hull could eventually lead to radionuclides leaking out in a model study by Norwegian Institute of Marine research. It showed that discharge of the entire cesium 1 37 inventory from the two reactors could increase concentrations in the Cod in the Eastern part of the Barents sea. By up to 100 times current levels for a two year period after the discharge. Now Russia’s nuclear corporation Rosatom has announced the date for K 1 59 to 2030. Also a submarine dumped into the courtesy in 1982 known only as K 27 is being included in the list of nuclear objects on the Arctic seabed to be salvaged by 2030, the submarine has been corroding on the sea bed for nearly 40 years.

Libbe HaLevy

01:15:15

Here’s hoping they get it right in India at Tamil Nadu, the nuclear power projects. First reactor went down on October 8th. This despite having just come out of 72 days of annual maintenance and the reactor operated as it was supposed to for only 36 days, no word is to the nature of the glitch or when the reactor will be back online. And here is a numnuts affiliated story in the UK to mark the anniversary of the 1957 wind scale fire in Kamaria, two protest groups have awarded a tainted prize to a rebranded nuclear plant in Lancaster, the Cape and her’s campaign and radiation free Lakeland have named the first George Monbiot award winner to the Springfield’s nuclear fuel manufacturing plant. A spokesperson for the two groups said mining transporting and processing of uranium increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as does the use of vast amounts of concrete used in the building of nuclear reactors.

Libbe HaLevy

01:16:27

Springfield has rebranded itself as a quote, clean energy technology park. The nuclear industry is increasingly promoting itself as clean and renewable and George Monbiot and influential journalist has played a key part in facilitating this rebranding. The award itself is a tarnished gold colored cup made in low quality plastic symbolizing. The ecologically damaging nature of the nuclear industry. We’ll have this week’s featured interview in just a moment, but first, Hey, there’s no significant release of radiation from nuclear reactors. So what you’re griping about, that’s what the nuclear industry would like you to believe. And they spend a ton of money to help make that happen. But as you’ll hear in today’s interview, there’s a lot about what radiation damage has been done to health by nuclear reactors. And it’s all based on us government data. Of course, that won’t stop the nukes stirs from continuing to pound us with their lies, propaganda, bullying, mockery, and misplaced sense of entitlement.

Libbe HaLevy

01:17:37

But repeat after me, they are wrong. And we prove it here every week. That is why you need nuclear hot seat for more than 10 years. Nuclear hotseat has been the one place where every week you can get a one hour hit of verifiable nuclear information interviews with genuine experts around up of international news numnuts of the week activist, shout outs, even a bit of musical theater. Where else can you find all this in a weekly counterbalance to the nuclear industry lies, but compared to the nuke stirs and limited financial resources, this show operates on a bake sale budget, and that budget is dependent on you. The listeners to help us keep going. That’s why if you have come to value nuclear, hot seats work, the time to support us with a donation is right now, it’s easy. Just go to nuclear, hot seat.com and click on the big red donate button to help us with a donation of any size.

Libbe HaLevy

01:18:45

You can also set up a recurring donation as little as $5 a month, which is the same as a cup of coffee and a nice tip here in the U S so if you value our different perspective on nuclear information, please do what you can know and know that however much you can help. I am deeply grateful that you’re listening and that you care here’s this week’s featured interview. Sometimes the nuclear truth hides in plain sight. Only it takes people with the eyes and training to see what’s really there. That’s what today’s guest does. And he has been doing it for more than 30 years. Joseph is the executive director for the radiation and public health project based in New York. And he has served the organization since 1989 as an epidemiologist in the interview. He explains exactly what that means. Joe has x-ray vision to look at government health statistics and read what they really mean.

Libbe HaLevy

01:19:46

That’s what we talk about for this interview, which includes information on the Dresden nuclear site, near Chicago and the fermion nuclear site in Monroe county, Michigan halfway between Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. He also explains the tooth fairy project, which not only tested for radioactive strontium 90 from the 1950s and sixties, atmospheric bomb tests, but is now being used to determine the cancer causing effects of radiation from nuclear reactors. If you have a child who’s been losing baby teeth, we have a way for you to put those teeth to good and lasting use. We’ll cover that in the interview. I spoke with Joseph Mangano on Friday, October 8th, 2021 with men Ghana. Thanks so much for joining us today on nuclear hot seat.

Joe Mangano

02:20:36

I want you to be here first,

Libbe HaLevy

02:20:38

Explain what the work of an epidemiologist is and what it is you do through radiation and public health project

Joe Mangano

02:20:46

Epidemiology, a lot of fancy word for the study of patterns and trends of disease. In our case, the radiation public health project does epidemiological studies of diseases near nuclear reactors in terms of cancers of infant, mortality of birth defects and other radiation related conditions.

Libbe HaLevy

02:21:12

Where do you get your source material from?

Joe Mangano

02:21:15

Most of our material is actually taken right off the internet from public health agencies. Like the CDC. We do a very good job in this country of collecting data on mortality by cause, and by incidents cases of cancers, unfortunately not too much analysis is done with them, but we’ve used these sources a lot. The only homegrown source of information is the study we are doing on radioactive strontium, 90 and baby.

Libbe HaLevy

02:21:45

We’re going to get to that in the moment. There are two projects you have been working on that I want to address because they ultimately merge the first. And this is material that has just been released to the public. Are your findings in Grundy county, Illinois, which is the site of the Dresden two nuclear reactor nuclear facility. What did you do? And what did you find?

Joe Mangano

02:22:10

Well, first allow me to explain how we selected Dresden. For me, we’ve been in existence since the late 1980s and because of where our main principles are located, most of our work has been in the Northeast. However, in recent years, the nuclear plants that we have spent much time with namely oyster Creek in New Jersey and Indian court in New York have shut permanently and thus any additional radioactive exposures and emissions will no longer take place. So with our job essentially being done there, we looked to other areas in which aging and corroding nuclear reactors were an operation. And after consult with several experts, we selected these two.

Libbe HaLevy

02:23:06

What were the reasons that you chose these two

Joe Mangano

02:23:09

Very simply number one, they are both very old army has been operating 36 years and also has a history of a now closed reactor that had a near meltdown in 1966 in Dresden had one reactor that operated in the sixties, seventies, but two reactors that are still operating that are among the oldest in the country. They’re 50 and 52 years old, which a nuclear parlance is ancient. And in both cases, I’ll be honest. There are financial loss being incurred, which means that these are the are more likely than other nuclear reactors to be shoved by their operators. And thus, we felt our resources were best applied in these areas.

Libbe HaLevy

02:24:04

What kind of findings have there been specifically regarding Dresden? Because that’s the story that hit last week.

Joe Mangano

02:24:15

Dresden is located in Grundy county, Illinois. It is 43 miles from the center of Chicago. They said these two reactors have been operating for over 50 years. Each what we did was a study of cancer deaths and cancer cases in the county compared to the United States, let’s start with mortality. We’re lucky that the CDC makes available mortality statistics on the internet, beginning of the year, 1968, all the way up to 2019. We found that in the late sixties and early seventies, just as the two Dresden reactors are being built, the Grundy county cancer death rate was 13% below the U S with every following decade. The gap got smaller until Grundy rate exceeded in the U S and in the most recent decade is 15% above the us.

Libbe HaLevy

02:25:20

15% higher cancer

Joe Mangano

02:25:22

Deaths. Yes, the cancer does are 50 rate is 15% higher than the us. So Grundy county has gone from a low cancer county to a high cancer county. We also found with in terms of deaths in the last 30 years, the cancer death rate in children and adolescents, people who died by age 24 was 38% above the U S, which is the highest excess any county in Illinois. Cancer is a red flag for nuclear powers, health damage, but childhood cancer is a double red flag for damage because it is the exposure to the fetus and the infant and the young child that that is strongest. And most hazardous. When we switched to incidents or cases, we found the following in the most recent five-year period, which is 2013 to 2017 out of 102 counties in Illinois, the county had the highest incidence rate twenty-five percent of all of the United States. And this translates into the five-year period, just over 1500 pastes. Moreover, we found the cancers that are most sensitive to radiation, all sexually hot child cancer, 41% above thyroid cancer, 60% above breast cancer, 6% above and leukemia, 38% red flag, red flag, red flag, red flag. These are issues of concern, even though causes of cancer are multiple. Our conclusion was we have to consider that emissions from Dresden all these years is a factor.

Libbe HaLevy

02:27:20

Here’s an old saying that correlation is not causation. And clearly we have a correlation between the years of operation of the Dresden reactors and the increase in cancer deaths and cancer incidences within Grundy county. Is there enough here to claim that the radiation releases caused those cancers?

Joe Mangano

02:27:46

I think our case can be made stronger and what we’re doing to make it stronger is now we are collecting baby teeth from mothers of young children here dressed, and we have enough teeth. We will have them test it in a laboratory for radioactive strontium 90, which can only be created when a nuclear weapon explodes or when a nuclear reactor operates. When we have that information, we already have two other pieces of information sandwiched around that. We know that there are emissions from Dresden, which are one of the highest in the United States, by the way, that was in our report as well. And we also have these high cancer rates. The sole question that remains to be answered is are these emissions actually getting into the body? And if we find that’s the case that is as strong a case as possible for, for the emissions, from Dresden being a factor, how much of a factor is it? A hundred percent of the, of the reason? Is it 50%? That’s very hard to say, but any amount is unacceptable.

Libbe HaLevy

02:28:55

Sounds like there’s a smoking gun here.

Joe Mangano

02:28:57

We use that phrase a lot spoken. Good.

Libbe HaLevy

02:29:01

Now the findings that you’ve had at Dresden, you said you’ve previously worked on two that you mentioned were oyster Creek and also Indian point, the kind of findings that you were getting addressed. And are they consistent with what you found at oyster Creek and Indian point?

Joe Mangano

02:29:18

They are consistent with oyster Creek at any point and other areas where we’ve done analysis. However, I would say that I’m not aware of any series of excesses that I just rattled off, especially the highest cancer rate of any county in the state and the very high rates in the radio sensitive cancers. I’ve never seen anything quite as consistent as I have in Grundy county. The home of addresses

Libbe HaLevy

02:29:47

In conjunction with nuclear energy information service, which is based in Chicago, you released press releases. And I believe there was an op ed last week, putting this information out specifically in Illinois. What, if anything has been the response to this information?

Joe Mangano

03:30:08

First, we held a press conference on the 5th of October, announcing these results and announcing our intent to collect and test baby teeth. In addition, the NIS group, you mentioned in our group, our PHP submitted a letter to both the Illinois state department of health and the Grundy county department of health, including the report and its findings and including an appeal for each of them who take these results seriously and join in the efforts, understand better why cancer rates are so high in Grundy county as we speak, we have not yet had a response. Certainly we expect to have one and hope that they do take these findings. Seriously.

Libbe HaLevy

03:31:00

How did the media respond? Did they cover these talking points?

Joe Mangano

03:31:04

We had four media that showed up during the press conference. And one that reached out to us afterwards

Libbe HaLevy

03:31:13

That doesn’t sound overwhelmingly responsive to the call.

Joe Mangano

03:31:18

It could have been better. There’s no question about it. I don’t think there’s anything that’s are many things that are a much more serious than this. And I say this during the middle of the worst pandemic in a hundred years, certainly COVID-19 is terrible. However, cancer was with us long before COVID-19 and it will be with us for a long time after COVID-19. It affects every family and every case. I mean, I I’m talking in statistical terms here, but it’s important. I point out that every single one of these cases involved is a tragedy. Whether the person survives or not, and how long they survive cancer is is, is, is horrible. And especially when you get to cancers that can be possibly avoided. There is a call here. We need to avoid them.

Libbe HaLevy

03:32:07

What actions either are being taken in response to these findings, or do you want to see taken in response to these findings?

Joe Mangano

03:32:17

Nothing has been done by any outside party yet we would like to see more media attention and more response from our social media, which is something we’ve done as well. We posted the results on our websites, Facebook page and Twitter account. So yes, we’d like to see more response that way. Number two, we would like to see parents of young children rolling up their sleeves and submitting a baby tooth or, or more from, from their children and to contribute to the scientific effort. And third of all, we want to see the health departments and other regularly, for example, there’s a nuclear regulatory commission. Each state has a viewer of radiation protection. We would like to see them publicly discuss this issue because it isn’t publicly discussed ever with any regulator, because there is no regulation that imposes on the operators in nuclear plants, you have to keep cancer to a certain level. It is not addressed in any rings. Yes. The emissions have to be a little low level. Yes, the amounts in the air and the food and the water must be below a certain level cancer not addressed. We think that’s wrong.

Libbe HaLevy

03:33:37

Let’s take a look at the baby teeth issue and the history of it as the tooth Keri project. This goes back quite a way. Please explain what the roots are of the determination to study baby teeth and what radiation and public health projects involvement in. This has been

Joe Mangano

03:34:00

The origins of the baby tooth study are really the origins of the nuclear era, which of course was the original use of the atom was for military purposes. The atomic bombs used in Japan and then the nuclear weapons tests above the ground, in the race for superiority and weapons between us and the Soviet union in the 1950s, many people were very fearful and there was going to be an all out nuclear war. And they were also fearful. And even without a nuclear war that fall out from these massive bomb tests, these mushroom clouds that went all across the planet, we’re actually getting into the precipitation and thus into the food chain and people’s bodies. And there were a large number of protests, as you know about continuing these tests, stop the test and get this radiation out of my kid’s milk in August, 1958, scientists from the national Institute of health Hermann, Cal Carr wrote an article in the journal nature where he calls for an international Milktooth census milk. Teeth is a another word for baby teeth. He outlined a plan for measuring a particular chemical in the bomb fallout cloud. There are over a hundred, but he picked out one called strontium 90, which is very much like calcium. And when it enters the body, it quickly goes into the bloodstream and attaches to bone and teeth. Like only unlike calcium. It’s not good for your health. It’s bad. These are radioactives and they cause cancers.

Libbe HaLevy

03:35:45

And once they’re in the teeth or in the bones, do they ever migrate out or once they’re in the child is stuck with them until they either lose the baby teeth, or if it comes into their permanent teeth, it stays there forever.

Joe Mangano

03:36:00

It stays there forever. Or for many, many years, every radioactive chemical decays at a certain rate, the half-life of strontium 90 is 29 years. And typically to represent the disappearing, we use 10 half lives. So 290 years,

Libbe HaLevy

03:36:19

Well we could all outlive that can’t wait

Joe Mangano

03:36:22

Contri.

Libbe HaLevy

03:36:24

So with the tooth fairy project, being something that was proposed, or at least the concept behind it now, did it take shape? And what form did it have and what was its impact?

Joe Mangano

03:36:38

Very quickly, two groups in St. Louis, one more scientists from Washington university and the other were citizens were just formed a group called the committee for nuclear information, got together and said, Hey, this is a great idea. Let’s do it. Maybe can study. And for the next, over the next 12 years, they collected at least 320,000 babies from children, many of the St Louis area, but also from around the United States, when the teeth were collected and tested in a laboratory, the scientists found that as bomb tests went on the levels of strontium 90 and babies got higher and higher. And I reached a peak in 1963, when the levels were 50 times greater than what they were for children born in 1950. And afterwards it dropped down sharply within the next five years, it dropped by half. And that was because these teeth results were used to help bring about the test ban treaty. They were sent to president Kennedy and his science advisor, Jerome waster, and they were used in testimony to the us Senate or the treaty treaty, which by the way, very likely saved millions of lives, not just in the United States, but around the world is that original two study was a landmark in public health.

Libbe HaLevy

03:38:13

Now it seems that there are still baby teeth from that original study that had not been tested. Where are those teeth now? And how do they factor into the current work that you are doing?

Joe Mangano

03:38:28

Our group RPH P learned about the St. Louis study years ago in the 1990s and said, you know what? We should be a to study, not for atomic bomb fault, but near nuclear reactors to measure how nuclear emissions from the reactors that we’re getting to children’s bodies. And we did. And during that time, I got to know a number of people in St. Louis had worked on the original study and one day a great surprise, wonderful surprise occurred when I got a call from Daniel Cole who was a biology professor. And he said, Hey, we’re looking for storage space for the university. And we found some teams. And I was surprised because no one had said you were any teeth left. Yeah. We tested the teeth and they’re all gone. And the next day he really shocked me when he said, Joe, there are thousands and thousands of these that are still here.

Joe Mangano

03:39:24

Do you want them? This university doesn’t want them. Barry commoner biologist who was prominent in the study said, no, I don’t want them. But he said, why don’t you try? RPH be, they’re doing it to the study. And they were donated to us. There are just a little under 100,000 teeth still remaining. These are people born 55 to 75 years ago. They constitute 37,000 people. Some gave more than one tooth. There are at least 12 teeth from every single state except for Vermont with four. And they also represent people born from 45 different countries. And we took the teeth immediately with the knowledge that we’re not going to duplicate what Washington university here. So we know the levels went up during testing and down after their band, what they didn’t do. And what we are going to do is to answer the question, what were the health hazards from exposure to bomb fall?

Joe Mangano

04:40:25

It’s a question that has received almost no attention from federal authority through two small studies done in, in the 1990s, both a very low estimates of cancers and using these teeth from people who are getting in their 50 sixties and seventies and measuring strontium 90, which still is in there and compare it with death records, which is what we’ve we’ve asked for. But we are going to take a shot at that question. And may I add this was only made possible by, by the great surprise number two, one day when I got a call from mark Weiskopf, who was a public health professor at Harvard university, his interest is in heavy metal exposures, but he’s used baby teeth. And he found out about our study and said, my goodness, I want to help. And it was through his grant and he secured from the NIH that the teeth were actually entered into a database before the information, as it were on three by five. Now they’re in an XML file, which makes it so much easier to, to plan studies and evaluate them and sell them again. Harvard is looking at heavy metals. We’re going to be looking at radiation in early life exposures. So, and we, we, by next year, we should have some results

Libbe HaLevy

04:41:45

Looking forward to receiving that and talking with you on the show for it, let’s bring this back to dressed in, and then we’ll talk about the other nuclear reactor you’re currently involved with at Dresden. You are in the process of collecting teeth. Are they going to be compared against this database? You are creating of the 100,000 teeth from the fifties and sixties. And is there anything further that you can gain from them that is beyond or other than the original studies?

Joe Mangano

04:42:19

We’re planning something that’s never been done before. We’re planning to compare early life exposures, the bomb fallout, and early life exposures to react. Your emissions never been done, and we’re doing it in the following way. Number one, we’re collecting baby teeth from children, young children who now live near here, Dresden. And we are going to test them for the same strontium 90 that I mentioned. And we’re also going to take your teeth from the Chicago area. Only people born in the 1950s who were exposed to BombBomb. So in other words, you have grandparents exposed early to bomb full out and grandchildren exposed early in life to react our emissions, which is higher. I have no idea. Nobody has any idea we’re going to find out. And of course, when we take the Keith from the earlier study and find out what the hazards of, of developing cancer, we can almost predict what’s going to happen to today’s children. Should they continue to live near these old deteriorating and leaking nuclear reactors? This is really unprecedented and we are very excited that it’s going to make a difference in, in the knowledge of, of the effects of this toxic bunch of chemicals.

Libbe HaLevy

04:43:44

I’m very excited as well on a podcast. People can’t see what my face is doing is I’m responding to what you’re saying, but it’s very exciting. And again, potentially groundbreaking work. Now there is a second nuclear reactor that you are also looking into and examining the way that you are currently doing it with Dresden. Tell us about that.

Joe Mangano

04:44:08

There we accurate you’re talking about is for me too, which is located about 25 miles south of the middle of Detroit Monroe county, Michigan for me too, is also another aging reactor it’s been running since the mid 1980s. It is getting older and it’s leaking. The emissions are relatively high compared to other us reactors and similar to what we did at Dresden, we went out and do the study of cancer mortality near for me. And we found the same thing before for me opened in the 1970s and early eighties. The level of cancer deaths was below the us 10% below. And now it’s, I think 14% higher. And again, it’s, it’s, this is a larger county. It’s 150,000 people. So we’re talking about a lot of cases involved. And of course the cancer deaths in children is the highest in Michigan. We presented the information at a press conference.

Joe Mangano

04:45:14

We had Christie Brinkley, the model and actress help present. She has been a great supporter. And as a board member for many years, she also happened to have been born in Monroe county, Michigan, and still has family there. And she took, it, took a great personal interest in this. Since then we followed up with an op-ed in the Monroe county news. We are in the process of collecting baby Jesus. And finally this week, the Monroe county news is in the process of running three full page advertisements that was made possible by Keith Gunter, who is an advocate from the area describing the concerns about the cancer findings and about the need to donate Keith. So they can get,

Libbe HaLevy

04:46:04

These are ads that were created or prepared by radiation and public health project.

Joe Mangano

04:46:09

Actually, they were created by Gunter. His group is called opponents affirming three a I forget the exact AME, but we of course reviewed it. Christie Brinkley reviewed it as well. It’s got a picture in it and we are awaiting a teeth contributions,

Libbe HaLevy

04:46:29

Which brings us to a point. You talk about working on these two reactors. Does somebody hire you and who pays you to do this work?

Joe Mangano

04:46:41

Nobody hired us to work at Fermi or a president. We select, and we meaning I and our board of directors, as far as getting paid, our PHP is a nonprofit organization that gets along through grants from foundations and mostly from individual donations, which makes us independent of any industry or government influence. We want to do objective research. Unfortunately in the history of the atomic era, research on health hazards has been very politicized from the very day. They, they split the atom and got the Hiroshima bomb ready. It has been very political and unfortunately it’s kept us from getting the full story full answers on what the hazards are.

Libbe HaLevy

04:47:34

What’s next for you and RPA HP.

Joe Mangano

04:47:37

For the moment we’re going to use your resident and Fermi as models, where we have established concern with health, with local cancer rates, but we’re going to collect the teeth, test them. And then we’re going to compare them with Keith in the area, from people who are now in their fifties and sixties. In addition, we’re going to do that kind of separately, a study, or really multiple studies using the original babies. We estimate that out of the 37,000 people whose teeth are in that file, about 6,000 of them are deceased at about 1600 or so have died of chance. We’re going to compare people who’ve died of cancer, versus those who are healthy now, or have died of accidents or something. We’ve already done a small study 10 years ago, where we looked at 20 teeth from people who died of cancer by age 50, and compared with people healthy. And we found strontium 90 was more than double in the cancer group, statistically significant, still a small number. We want to expand on that, but you had another red flag. You know, the more strontium in your body, the more likely you are to die of cancer is the hypothesis that’s that’s being considered here. Again, something that no one has really looked at in the 67 year era, nuclear weapons and nuclear power,

Libbe HaLevy

04:49:05

What can we do to support

Joe Mangano

04:49:07

Your work? One, you can go to radiation.org. You can review the information that we have on, on all these projects. I’ve, I’ve described number two for anybody, and especially those who live near nuclear reactors. You can certainly donate a baby to this three. We’ve described very simply about, about the process. It’s very simple to wrap a tooth up in tissue. You fill out a form which is on the website and you mail it. And that’s it much like the people in St. Louis years ago, we are not just the scientific research. It’s really citizen science because we rely very much on the advocacy of concerned citizens and need actual help of, and it’s usually mothers who donate their children’s baby teeth, which is really, I think the spectacular lesson of the original study, everyone gives the scientists credit. Everyone gives the children whose teeth were donated. It was the parents, especially the mothers who took time out of their very busy lives and did something good for the world. And we see that continuing to happen. Now we have over 5,000 teeth in the current study, near round a number that’s still growing. Of course, nothing like it was years ago, but still lots of peaks. Then we’ve, we’ve published five journal articles on, on the results near other nuclear plants. More to come,

Libbe HaLevy

05:50:31

Joe Mangano. This is exciting work you’re doing it is unprecedented work. And it is important because of the previous baby to study. The big one actually was a crucial part of getting an atmospheric test ban treaty. There’s no telling what the work you’re doing now and in the future can achieve for all of us in terms of turning this nuclear juggernaut around and for all you have done and all you continue to do. Thank you. And thank you for being my guest this week on nuclear hot seat. Thank you. Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, executive director for the radiation and public health project. Their website is radiation.org. And you know, they’ve been around for a long time to have a single word for their web address. Now it’s time for some audience participation. If you live in Grundy county, near Dresden’s nuclear facility in Illinois, or in Monroe county, Michigan near the fermion nuclear reactors and have a child who has baby teeth that you want to donate on our website, nuclear hot seat.com. Under this episode, number 5 38, we will have a link to the form you need to use for submitting those baby teeth with a little bit more information. And there will also be an email address for you to contact Joe Mangano directly. Should you have questions, suggestions, or if you’re a member of the media and want to get the story, let’s all do what we can to help this baby tooth story. So we can take a bigger bite out of nuclear

Announcer

05:52:17

Activists.

Libbe HaLevy

05:52:25

First off, great news about the film in the dark of the valley, which deals with the Santa Susana field lab and what they call quote the story of a mother, Melissa Bumstead in Southern California, who finds that an abandoned rocket testing facility called the Santa Susana field laboratory near her home was the site of one of the largest nuclear accidents in the U S she examined the possibility that the site may have exposed the surrounding community to cancer causing radioactive and chemical waste. MSNBC president Rashida Jones said in a statement, this Santa Susana field lab is one of the most devastating manmade environmental disasters in our country that we rarely talk about this film illustrates the relentless efforts of mothers in pursuit of truth and heightens the human side of the poignant story and the film’s director. Nicholas Mim said, MSNBC gives these mothers a voice, a voice that has too long been stifled by apathy and greed on a platform that won’t let this story be lost in the shuffle.

Libbe HaLevy

05:53:32

Once again, in the dark of the valley debuts on MSNBC on November 14th, 2021 at 10:00 PM, Eastern 7:00 PM Pacific time, congratulations all around a relatively new organization, LA brats, which stands for the legacy of the atomic bomb recognition for atomic test survivors is building an international register of atomic descendants. This will be to provide statistical information for campaigns and to show governments across the world that the testing program is still affecting more than a million descendants worldwide. If you are a descendant of a rotisserie patient in the nuclear testing program, please register your details on a page that we will link to on our website, nuclear hot seat.com. Under this episode, number 5 38, there will be an overall number for each country. And please you will need to indicate if the participant was in the military, a scientist, a civilian, or an indigenous person and nuclear information and resource service or nears has a petition out.

Libbe HaLevy

05:54:47

We would like you to sign it’s to protect indigenous communities and the environment by saying no to the proposed uranium reserve. President Biden promised voters to invest in environmental justice and clean energy, but uranium mining would undermine both the Biden administration is moving forward with a Trump era proposal to establish a nuclear fuel stockpile. Otherwise known is a strategic uranium reserve or Sur that would encourage more mining and put many frontline indigenous communities and treasured sacred places like the grand canyon bears ears and the black Hills at risk from uranium contamination. We will link to this petition so that you can sign it. This has been nuclear hot seat for Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 material for this week show has been researched and compiled from nuclear-news.net, Dylan renard.wordpress.com beyond nuclear.org. Any I s.org and I R s.org, the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons or I can w.org variety.com Librax international salsa labs.org, Washington, post.com Chatham star tribune.com news break.com Korea times.co dot K R Japan times.co dot J P E I N.

Libbe HaLevy

05:56:15

News dot C O the hindu.com Cumbria cracked.com, reuters.com truthout.org, dw.com and the captured and compromised by the industry. They are supposed to be regulated and do such a lousy job of doing so. The nuclear regulatory commission, Hey, there’s no need to hunt around and try and find a link to each week’s episode of nuclear hot seat. The way to get it is easy. Go to our website, nuclear hot seat.com. And you’ll see a yellow box there where you can sign up first name, email address. We will send you each week’s link. As soon as it posts along with a short description of the contents, we don’t bug you. We don’t sell your information. We just want to make sure that you get nuclear hot seat every week. So go to the website, sign up. You’ll have no problems in the future. You can opt out whenever you’d want to, but why would you want to now in terms of stories, this is a participatory democracy here.

Libbe HaLevy

05:57:17

If you have a story lead a hot tip or suggestion with someone to interview, send an email to info@nuclearhotseat.com. And if you appreciate these weekly verifiable news updates about nuclear issues around the world, along with everything else that we put into this show, take a moment and go to nuclear, hot seat.com. Look for the big red button, click on it, follow the prompts. Anything you can do will help. And we will really appreciate your support. This episode of nuclear hot seat is copyright 2021 Leebee Halevi and Hardy street communications, all rights reserved, but fair use allowed. As long as proper attribution is provided. This is Libby Halevi of hardest streak communications. The heart of the art of communicating, reminding you. None of us is out of prison. As long as one nuclear bomb exists. That’s a quote from sister Meagan rice. That’s it. That’s your nuclear wake-up call. So whatever you do do not go back to sleep because we are all in the nuclear hot seat,

Announcer

05:58:30

Clear hot seat. What are those people thinking? Nuclear hot. Hotsy what have those boys been braking clear, hot. See the Ms. Sinking our time to act is shrinking, but the visceral linking Hotsy it’s the bomb.