A study that reported an increased risk of lung cancer for people who lived near the former Fernald uranium processing plant was accurate, say government scientists who earlier this year criticized the findings as overblown.
Backpedaling on their earlier criticism, scientists from the National Research Council on Thursday released a retraction confirming the August 1996 findings of the Radiological Assessments Corp. (RAC) of Neses, S.C.
RAC - which had conducted the six-year, $4 million study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - found that longtime neighbors of Fernald faced an elevated risk of developing lung cancer.
In a worst-case outlook, the report said a person living for 38 years within 1 mile of the plant faced a 22.5 percent chance of developing lung cancer. That's a 12.5 percent higher risk than the average American faces.
The scientists agreed that radon - the radioactive gas formed in two deteriorating silos filled with 20 million pounds of radioactive waste - was the greatest health threat to Fernald neighbors.
But the government scientists initially argued that the study's dose estimates for women, children and non-smokers living near Fernald were four to six times too high. Now, the scientists say the figures for women and non-smokers were accurate, and both sides agreed to decrease the estimated doses for children.
The government's confirmation gives new support to Fernald neighbors, researchers and scientists who want the CDC to conduct a full epidemiological study.
That study, which would cost millions and take years to complete, would help determine how many neighbors developed cancer because of radiation exposure from Fernald, a 1,050-acre former uranium-processing plant 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati.
Final government vindication of RAC's work came Thursday in a letter from William J. Schull, chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Assessment of CDC Radiation Studies.
Mr. Schull wrote, in part: "RAC has agreed to make changes in its final report in response to the committee's recommendations, and the committee has recognized that it had mistakenly criticized RAC in some parts of its report."
Lisa Crawford, president of Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health, said the scientific dispute caused a lot of confusion among the public.
"It caused a lot of problems. I'm pleased to hear that (the government scientists) have backpedaled."
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