Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Study Finds that Childhood Leukemia Rates Double Near Nuclear Power Stations

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Study Finds that Childhood Leukemia Rates Double Near Nuclear Power Stations

Click here to access article by John Daly from Oilprice.

The study by the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (French Institute of Health and Medical Research, or INSERM) found a leukemia rate twice as high among children under the age of 15 living within a 3.1-mile radius of France's 19 nuclear power plants.

I will never forget my experience while applying for a social worker position at a medical facility in Nevada in 1979. While waiting for an interview, I carried on a casual conversation with someone on the staff, and at one point in the conversation, that person told me in hushed tones about the high rate of cancer patients at medical facilities in Nevada, an area where so many atomic tests had occurred. This fact almost never made it into mainstream media.

It seems that this under-reporting is still occurring, this time in France where the nuclear industry is very prevalent. Note that this report is published in an obscure industry publication oriented toward fossil fuels.