Discounted Casualties
Part II The Threat in Our Backyards
An Epidemiologist's View
Akira Tashiro
State's Highest Cancer Rates
On Tuesday afternoon, I drove from Concord to the home of Dr. Richard Clapp (54) on the south side of Boston, Massachusetts. As an epidemiologist, Clapp specializes in the relationship between radiation exposure and cancer. He also teaches environmental health as associate professor at Boston University's School of Public Health.
"The residents of Concord definitely have generally higher rates of cancer than other areas in Massachusetts." Clapp took relevant materials off shelves in his study as he talked. "I released my study data just as resident concern about Starmet Corporation (the former Nuclear Metals Inc.) was growing."
Twice the State's Leukemia Rates
Clapp was the first director of the state Cancer Registry established in 1980. He worked there until 1989. Between 1982 and 1986, the registry studied leukemia and multiple myeloma in Concord males. In 1991 it reported that "Incidence in Concord was almost double that of other areas in the state."
"Though it was only ten persons, the difference was clearly statistically significant. And we already knew from surveys of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors that leukemia and multiple myeloma are highly correlated with radiation."
Clapp also cited the cases of American soldiers exposed starting in the mid-1940s when they participated in atmospheric nuclear tests conducted over the Pacific Ocean and at the nuclear test site in Nevada. He mentioned workers at the contaminated Hanford Nuclear Weapons Plant (Washington). He said the incidence of leukemia and multiple myeloma was elevated for these populations as well.
Clapp has a breakdown of the cancer rates in Concord that local former electrical engineer William Smith (71) created based on cancer records from 1982 to 1990. According to this report released in 1995, Concord's rates are higher than state averages for the following diseases: thyroid cancer (2.5 times), testicular cancer (2.2), myeloma (1.9), melanoma (1.8), brain tumor (1.5) and breast cancer (1.3).
A Concord resident who studied cancer incidence in roughly 100 neighborhood households over two years (1995-1996) found 54 cases of cancer. I showed Clapp the materials that the resident had put together . His large eyes widened as he perused the three sheets of paper.
"This is amazing material. I had no idea someone was doing this kind of survey." This was the first he had heard of the four persons in their 20s and 30s living on the same street who contracted cancer over a relatively short period. Three of the four contracted lung cancer.
A Veterans Survey
Clapp and the staff of Boston University's School of Public health (Department of environmental Health) are now studying the relationship between diseases of Gulf war veterans living Massachusetts and DU penetrators and other factors. Lung cancer risk is known to rise when DU particles enter the body and lodge in the lungs. This raised Clapp's suspicions about the high cancer rates among young Concord residents.
"But we can't conclude that Starmet is the villain merely from this study and from what I was able to learn," added Clapp. "For example, wee the persons who contracted leukemia or multiple myeloma Starmet workers or neighborhood residents? What was their dose? We have to go into it more deeply."
Encouragement to the Residents
A specialist may require 100 percent proof to draw a conclusion. However, Clapp also said, "It's natural for people living where radiation exposure is a possibility--near nuclear weapons-related plants or research centers, nuclear fuel or nuclear waste facilities, weapons testing facilities or disposal facilities, nuclear power plants-to be concerned. we medical professionals have to respond to those people's fears."
This was support from an independent expert. researchers like Clapp offer vital information and encouragement to Concord residents and gulf War veterans.
Rehabilitation::Reconciliation::Military::Geonocide
Replies
There is so much to say about this piece. In 2009 there was a secret meeting in Nanakuli with our community leaders. Filming was not allowed because of Kamehameha's policy which was bogus so I later found out. I sat there listening to this UH Manoa lecture on Ordnance debrie off the Maile shores. This lecture (talk) was conducted by Tad Davis from the Pentagon. The program"Native Hawaiian Veterans, LLC A Native Hawaiian Company SDOSB/SBA 8(a)/SDB/ Indean Incentive Program "Ordnance Reef Project Disposal Alternatives and Outreach Program." As the paycheck UH Manoa pseudo scientist lectured about the debrie showing up on the shores of Mailie, I could only reflect on the homeless children picking-up puka shells. They did this to glue their shells on Xmas trees so that they could give it to people that brough them gifts.
As I sat there I glanced around the room and watched our so-called leaders sit there docile with not concern, care or knowledge about what was happening to there community. I did ask a question before I left, and pointed to our roof tops as holding pens for DU. The UH Manoa presenter did say if we could bring in samples he would be able to test it for us. He, quickly dismissed my offering as not a concern of this study which is ocean debrie only. Another person raised the issure of cancer, she was flipped off.
As a student at UH Manoa I took a class with Dr. Miller she is the expert of the Ala Wai studies conducted in the 70s. I irritated her just by appearance and my disinterest look. Which was not true. I just came home from California and I did the Riot Participation Assessment study from Marina Del Ray to Long Beach California two weeks after the beating of Rodney King. I was not in a happy state of mind, I was exhusted from long travels and intense studies.
In her class, that is where I learned about the high rate of cancer among children, specifically in Maili. Which is exceptable today because we have so many.