BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HARRISON -- Like tentacles reaching from the heart of Fernald, streams of radon gas emitted before 1979 may have reached people living nearly 19 miles from the Crosby Township site, according to a scientific study released Thursday.
Within that 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) radius -- especially in Cincinnati and other points southeast of the former uranium processing plant -- residents have a slightly higher risk of developing lung cancer.
In his report, Owen Devine of the National Center for Environmental Health confirmed what the Fernald Health Effects Subcommittee instinctively knew: The plant that processed uranium for the Cold War effort from 1953 to 1988 had a widespread impact on public health.
This is the first time government officials have found scientific evidence of an impact beyond 10 kilometers from the site.
"My concern is the message really hasn't been getting to people outside the (10-kilometer radius)," said Susan Verkamp, assistant superintendent of the Cincinnati Health Department laboratory, at the subcommittee's quarterly meeting. "I think they've been thinking, "Boy, I'm safe -- I'm outside of that line.' But that's not the case."
The study, based on mathematical calculations and statistics rather than on actual deaths, says:
The health impact was felt by people who lived in the area prior to 1979, when the Department of Energy discovered the radon gas leak and took measures to stop it.
The increased risk of dying of lung cancer diminishes as the distance from Fernald grows. Residents who lived 2.5 kilometers southeast of the site are at a 12 percent greater risk than the general population for dying of lung cancer; at 15 kilometers, there is 2 percent greater risk; at 20 kilometers, 1 percent; at 25 kilometers, 0.6 percent; and at 30 kilometers, 0.3 percent.
Although the risk is smaller in other directions from Fernald -- due in part to wind patterns that carried the radon gas -- there is still an added lung cancer risk of 0.2 percent at 20 kilometers northeast and southwest of the site; and 0.02 percent at 20 kilometers northwest. Scientists explained that a 1 percent added risk of developing lung cancer in a given area means that for every 100 cases of lung cancer they would otherwise have expected to see, there will now be 101.
Members of the Health Effects Subcommittee said they want to make sure word of the added risk reaches the public.
Residents need to know that there is nothing they can do about past exposure to radon. But they can reduce the added risk of developing lung cancer by not smoking tobacco, said Susan Pinney, associate professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati. And they should monitor the level of naturally occurring radon gas in their homes to make sure they are not getting an additional dose that could cause more harm.
The new, more far-flung estimates are available only as percentages, rather than in actual numbers of expected lung cancer deaths. That is because scientists do not know how many people lived in the area between 10 and 30 kilometers away from Fernald in 1951, when the plant was built, to 1979.
Because the report was based on a mathematical model rather than an actual survey of residents and death rates, it has a greater degree of statistical uncertainty. That means that even though the calculations were made with the assumption that every person got the maximum possible radon dose, the actual health impact may be underestimated, Dr. Pinney said. The radiation could have spread even farther.
"There is just so much uncertainty (in the report). . . . We have to work very hard to communicate that there is no line that you can walk over and be safe," she said.
An initial lung-cancer study, released in March by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 85 people within the 10-kilometer radius have died or will die from lung cancer caused by the radon leak at Fernald. That's about a 3 percent increase over the 2,600 lung cancer deaths that would have been expected in the area.
Nevertheless, U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati -- who requested the study beyond the 10-kilometer radius -- said he thinks the information is valuable.
"People have been concerned about Fernald for years. These citizens may be at a higher risk of lung cancer because of the activities of the federal government," he said. "We want to know what the increased risks are -- I think we owe them at least that much."
