THE CARCINOGENIC, MUTAGENIC,

CITIZENS AWARENFSS NETWORK

INTRODUCTION

During the past two decades, residents of the Deerfield River Valley in Massachusetts suffered alarming health problems: an increased cancer rate, miscarriages, multi birth-defected children, and a ten-fold increase in Down’s Syndrome (a congenital disease characterized by mental retardation and bodily malformation). Local health authorities were unable or unwilling to account for the region's growing pattern of health anomalies.

Attention turned to the safety of the nearby Yankee Rowe nuclear power station, the nation's first 'experimental' commercial reactor, and the effectiveness of the standard nuclear safety guidelines of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [NRC]. During a series of public meetings, area residents learned that the Yankee Rowe reactor had used the nearby Deerfield River as a radioactive waste dump over the past thirty years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the operation of commercial nuclear reactors in America, permitted this dumping of radioactive waste.

Concerned citizens, realizing that the river had been widely used for well water, crop irrigation, and recreational purposes, began to question whether the increases in disease were due to the reactor's regular releases of radioactive materials into the river.

It was at this point that the Citizens Awareness Network [CAN] was formed as a grassroots organization primarily concerned with the health and safety of its community.

The Citizens Awareness Network began to investigate effluent releases from the Yankee Rowe reactor into the Deerfield River, and compiled a 30-year history of such releases. CAN found that large quantities of tritium, a dangerous enviro-toxin, had been released into the river (given the river’s size and the degree of contact the community routinely had with its water).

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health [MDPHI] initially denied that there was cause for concern. After continuing pressure from CAN and the local community, MADPH agreed to a preliminary investigation of the diseases. After eight years the MDPH completed an initial investigation, which determined that there was statistical significance in cancers and children with Down’s Syndrome. Investigations are ongoing with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

With the professional assistance of epidemiologist Dr. Sidney Cobb, and the work of concerned citizens, CAN coordinated research into state health statistics, effluent reports and meteorological data. Dr. Cobb analyzed the raw data and concluded that an epidemic indeed existed in the Deerfield River Valley, and that a full-scale epidemiological study was warranted. A Health Committee of local residents formed, coordinated by CAN to access the professional help needed to document both the diseases in the Deerfield River Valley and the mechanism of contamination. Over the years CAN enlisted the help of Harvard School of Public Health, US Geological Services, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

An analysis of statewide statistics provided by MDPH confirmed a statistically significant increase in various types of cancer in the Deerfield River Valley.

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Moreover, deficiencies in MDPH's records for the incidence of Down’s Syndrome prompted CAN, community leaders, and local legislators to advocate for a new statewide birth defects registry. Presently a birth defects registry is forming with the help of the CDC.

The Citizens Awareness Network has continued its investigation of the nuclear reactor, leading to our research on tritium, one of the nuclear isotopes regularly released into the Deerfield River. We present this research with the experience of successfully influencing legislators and health officials through information and awareness. We believe that ordinary citizens can - and must -understand the scientific and social issues related to the production of nuclear power.

CAN believes that the standard operation of a nuclear power station causes untold harm, sickness and death. The focus on nuclear accidents results in misleading and diversionary arguments over the safety and effectiveness of existing technology. We believe that Yankee Rowe has been one of the 'safest' reactors in the country, according to NRC guidelines. It is the NRC guidelines that need re-evaluation.

The epidemic of disease in the Deerfield River Valley did not become apparent until 25 to 30 years after operation began. We are now beginning to see the health effects of long-term exposure to low level radiation in our community, and communities throughout the world.

We have all participated in a terrible experiment. The data from the investigation of Yankee Rowe and other nuclear facilities will provide information to educate citizens about the effects of radiation on the health of their generation and future generations.

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CITIZENS AWARENESS NETWORK

TRITIUM

Tritium is a radionuclide emitted as waste from pressurized water nuclear reactors, heavy water nuclear reactors and the new generation of nuclear reactors. It has been an integral part of the nuclear weapons industry: tritium was released into the atmosphere as part of weapons testing in the 1950's and 60's. It is a beta emitter and has a half-life of 12.5 years. It decays to an isotope of helium, releasing a neutrino and a beta particle (an electron). The electron is slow-moving and has a very short range.

Tritium was believed to be a relatively benign radionuclide because of the weakness of the beta radiation emitted when it decays. The beta electron is a small particle that passes readily through most barriers. The dangers of tritium come from inhalation, ingestion, and absorption.

Tritiated water (HTO) passes through the human body in 12 days. However, when the radionuclide unites with carbon in the human body, plants, or animals, it becomes organically bound (OBT) and can remain in the human body for 450 to 650 days. One study found traces of tritium in the body 10 years after exposure.(24)

As tritium makes its way up the food chain it may become more concentrated.(16) Pigs fed with tritiated food themselves became tritiated, as did their offspring. The blood, heart, and kidneys of the piglets were more tritiated than the mother .(23)

Tritium is carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. (21) Human beings can receive chronic exposure to OBT through the ingestion of plants and animals exposed In the effluent pathway, in addition to direct uptake through inhalation, absorption and drinking contaminated water. Especially sensitive to the effects of tritium are rapidly growing cells such as fetal tissue, genetic materials and blood forming organs. (2,12,19, 21, 20)

Tritium is dense and has a short track length. It releases all its activity at one time. This makes it more potent and similar to soft x-rays, which are more effective than hard x-rays. (15) When and where it deposits its radioactivity, it creates at least one lesion in the cell. This lesion must be repaired within 24 hours or the cell will be carcinogenic when it eventually divides.(26, 30) There may be a threshold below which the repair mechanism is not activated in the body, (13,15,27, 32) therefore, low levels of chronic radiation exposure can accumulate in the body without the repair system being activated. (11, 25, 27,30,32, 36)

Tritium has a transmutational effect which is mutagenic. After the particle releases its radioactivity into the cell, a helium ion is formed. The helium springs away from the 9-particle and severs the bond with the compound to which the tritium had attached itself. The compound acquires a positive charge and becomes chemically active.(22)

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It then can attach itself to a ring of a protein precursor that will make up the chromosomal strands in the DNA. Depending on the ring it attaches to, it can affect the protein precursors and damage the DNA. This would create a mutational effect.(22)

Radiological research has found a correlation between tritium and cumulative genetic injury. (21) There was found in successive generations a reduction in relative brain weight, reduction in litter size, and increased reabsorption of embryos. Correlations have been found in epidemiological research between tritium and Down’s' Syndrome. Associations have also been found between low-level radiation and Down's Syndrome.(6,7,8,10,31)

The Deerfield River Valley (DRV)

Nuclear power stations must dispose of waste to operate. For pressurized water reactors (such as Yankee Rowe), the main effluent release is into a body of water. Thus the Deerfield River Valley becomes a radiation waste dump for Yankee Rowe. When tritium is released into such an environment, plants, animals, and human beings in the vicinity can be contaminated.(17,24)

The Deerfield River is a small winding river in western Massachusetts. It has white water and is fast running. The valley through which the river runs is 800 feet on either side, creating a tunnel where inversions are held 34% of the time. Fog hangs in the valley for days at a time. Yankee Atomic Electric Co developed this meteorological data.

The river has been used for recreational purposes during the 31 year history of the Yankee Rowe reactor. Citizens swim, fish and boat in the river. Wells and cropland are adjacent to the river, and in times of drought, river water is used to irrigate crops. Each year 500,000 people use the river.

For 31 years the Deerfield River has been a dumping ground for low-level radioactive waste. During the 1960’s and early 70’s, Yankee Rowe had problems with faulty fuel rods and dumped large amounts of tritium into the river. Up to 1,800 curies a year were released, nominally within NRC guidelines.

The estimated concentrations of tritium were 10,000 times greater in the DRV than outside the valley. There were batch releases each month. People in the community were generally unaware that the river was radioactive, although it had been noted that since the reactor opened, the river never froze.

An analysis of the Deerfield River (done by a graduate student at John Hopkins University from US Geological Services studies) raised serious questions concerning the migration of contamination from the Deerfield River, the potential for wells in Ashfield, Deerfield, and Greenfield to share water supplys with the Deerfield, and the potential for recharging. Recommendations were made to study evaporation of tritium, measure pollutant contaminations, and ascertain information on the holding basins in the valley.

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This analysis and its recommendations were presented to MDPH, however, the department did not investigate these issues or refer the concerns to other agencies that could be of help. There is presently an ongoing investigation of wells and pathways of contamination by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Massachusetts.

Epidemic of Disease in DRV

Increases in miscarriages, mental retardation, cancer and other health problems began to be noted in the 1980’s through 1990’s. There have been over 10 children born with Down’s Syndrome since the 1980’s, all to mothers under the age of forty. In fact, an additional three children with Down’s Syndrome have been born in the 1990’s. Most affected families live within a five-mile radius of each other in the effluent pathway, or have had extensive contact with the river during their pregnancies.

Down‘s Syndrome occurs, on average, in one of 700 to 1,000 live births. Of the approximately 2,000 live births within the valley in the last 20 years, the incidence of Down’s Syndrome is closer to one in 100. There have been six chromosomally damaged children conceived during the same time period. Two of these children were born. One died at 6 months, the other child was five years old with Down’s Syndrome features. Another of the chromosomally damaged fetuses was trisomic. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health initiated a preliminary investigation of the environs around Yankee Rowe, in the pristine rural environment of the DRV.

There is a 50% increase in five different cancers; a 40% increase in heart disease; and a 110% increase in infectious disease leading to mortality according to an analysis by Dr. Sidney Cobb of MDPH statistics. Cobb pressured the MDPH to study the valley and called for a large-scale health study to be undertaken by the state. Cobb had been instrumental in pressuring the state to engage in a health study of leukemia around the Pilgrim reactor in southeastern MA. That study found a 4-fold increase in leukemia in residents living within a 5 -mile radius of that reactor.

After eight years the MDPH released a preliminary investigation riddled with misinformation. The state refused to study the Deerfield River Valley as a whole even though the population of the valley was smaller than a small city (under 10,000 residents; 35,000 including Greenfield and Deerfield)). MDPH included inaccurate meteorological data that had wind patterns blowing away from the valley even though it had participated with CAN and the Deerfield River Valley Health Committee in a meteorological study done by Harvard School of Public Health. It refused to include certain children born or conceived in the valley with Down’s Syndrome, lowering the statistical significance from a 10-fold increase in to a four-fold increase. MDPH refused to include multi birth-defected children, brain tumors, heart disease, immune deficiency disease, and to acknowledge the reality that a “cluster” of Down’s Syndrome and other diseases existed.

It, however, acknowledged statistical significance in breast cancer, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and Down’s Syndrome. 11 cases of Multiple Myeloma were found in the valley. The state refused to acknowledge statistical significance in Multiple Myeloma because the cases were scattered among the 8 towns studied. Greenfield, MA, located between the Yankee Rowe and the Vermont Yankee reactor in

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Vernon, Vermont (which the state did not include in the study), had an additional 8 cases. Multiple Myeloma is a rare blood cancer; there are only 12,700 cases diagnosed each year in the US. The only known cause is ionizing radiation.

After MDPH refused to revise its study or proceed with a full-scale health study in the area, CAN obtained statistics from the MA Cancer Registry which found 27 cases of multiple Myeloma from 1982-1992 in the Valley and Greenfield. (14 in the 8 towns and 13 in Greenfield.) Additionally, we found 17 cases of brain tumors between 1982-92 in the valley and 18 brain tumors in Greenfield during the same period, bringing the combined total to 35 brain tumors. These are alarming statistics for a poor, rural community with limited medical services. It is a terrible reality for ordinary people faced with the burden of caring for sick and dying relatives and friends.

Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) and Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS) have demanded that NRC fund an independent epidemiological investigation of the DRV. This would entail an effluent pathway study of the river. We have also demanded that NRC reevaluate their inadequate and unfounded dosimetery standards for tritium.

To understand the effects of tritium exposure, the effects of organically bound tritium (OBT), and tritiated water (HTO) must be calculated. Since the effects of tritium are on a cellular level rather than an organ level, microdosimetry is required.

The issues raised in this report about the operation of the Yankee Rowe reactor were forwarded to the Inspector General of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for investigation. The NRC subsequently acknowledged that over 10,000 curies of tritium were released into the Deerfield; it also stated that it was not within its regulations to authorize or organize a health study of the residents of the Deerfield River Valley.

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Annotated bibliography of low-level radiation studies and tritium research

Down’s Syndrome

I E. Alberman, J.A. Polani, Fraser Roberts, C.C. Spicer, M. Elliot, E. Armstrong, 'Parental Exposure to X-irradiation and Down’s Syndrome." London: Ann. Him. Genet. 36 (1972): 195.

Effect of radiation on increase in Down's Syndrome was greatest in subgroup where X-rays were received more than ten years before conception. There was significant increase of 'ever" X-rayed mothers in Down's Syndrome group. The size or dose of X-ray was less important than the cumulative effect, as if damage was not followed by repair.

2.· V. BEIR, 'Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation." National Academy Press. 1990.

Report stated that there was no threshold for the effects of radiation when the brain is in its most sensitive stage of development. This was especially true from 8-1 5 weeks through 22 weeks of gestation.

3.· Susan Harlap, 'Down's Syndrome in West Jerusalem,' American Journal Epidem, 97, No. 4. pp. 225-232.

Research found that there were environmental factors involved in the etiology of Down's Syndrome. Harlap compared rates of Down's Syndrome in different groups in Israel. For mothers aged under 35, the age-adjusted risk of Down's Syndrome is increased eightfold in one group who used the ritual baths while for older mothers difference in risk is less than threefold.

4.· N. Kochupillai,I.C. Verma, M.S. Grewal, V. Remalinggaswami, 'Down's Syndrome and related abnormalities in an area of high background radiation in coastal Kerala.' Nature, 262 (1976) 60-61.

Research compared high background population to control with low background radiation. The observed frequency was higher than in controls and significant. Higher frequency of cases of Down's Syndrome born to mothers aged 30-39. There was an association suggested between low dose radiation exposure of older maternal age, suggesting that the damaging event accelerates oocyte aging and causes primary trisomy rather than translocation trisomy.

5· CN Rasmey, Ellis, and Zeally, 'Down's Syndrome in the Lothian Region of Scotland 1978 to 1979.' Biomed & Pharmacother45 (1991) : 267-272.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Observable increases in Down's Syndrome were noted in Lothian Region of Scotland after the accident at Chernobyl. The highest rate of 27.1 2 in 1987 was significantly higher than average for the whole period. Increase in incidence peaked in late 1987 and subsequently returned to pre-1986 levels.

6· Sheehan, M. Patricia and B. Hillary Irene, 'An Unusual Cluster of Babies with Down's Syndrome Born to Former Pupils of an Irish Boarding School.' British ]our. Med. 1 1 Dec. 1983 : 287.

Sheehan found a cluster of children born with Down's Syndrome (8) to mothers who attended a girls school as adolescents, during the Windscale fire at that reprocessing reactor. The school was in the effluent pathway and the radionuclide released was tritium. There were 30 birth abnormalities in all in this small population.

7 A.T. Sigler, et al 'Radiation exposure in parents with children with mongolism (Down's Syndrome).' Bulletin of John Hopkins Hospital, 2 (1968): 1045-1049.

Radiation exposure increased the risk of mongolism in parents. There was validation of the view concerning cumulative radiation damage to genetic material. Exposure was result of fluoroscopic and therapeutic radiation.