BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP -- Sooner or later, doctors who practice near Fernald will see it happen.
Patients who lived or worked around the former uranium processing plant during the peak of its Cold War operations develop lung cancer -- and, maybe, other diseases -- more often than others.
A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed in March that radon gas leaking at Fernald prior to 1979 caused or will cause an estimated 85 lung cancer deaths among people who lived within 10 kilometers of the plant.
In an update to the report, officials said last week that people living up to 18.6 miles away from Fernald are also at a slight added risk of developing the disease -- especially in Cincinnati and other heavily populated areas to the southeast.
However, most physicians working that far from Fernald are not aware of the danger. They do not know that they should be asking patients about their past proximity to a uranium processing plant that closed a decade ago. They were never told to be on added alert for the earliest signs of lung cancer.
But soon, they will be.
The Fernald Health Effects Subcommittee -- made up of local environmental health experts, community activists and Fernald union representatives -- just mailed a flier to 2,200 doctors and nurses in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties. It offers information on Fernald activities and potential health effects, as well as resources and contacts at the CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
And the agencies are holding a training session for medical personnel on Nov. 7 at Mercy Hospital Fairfield.
"Hopefully, it will not only enhance awareness, but will start doctors looking at preventive health measures," said Larita Frazier-O'Bannon, a physician and subcommittee member who is leading the effort. "Most doctors in the community know very little about Fernald," she said.
James Essell, a cancer and blood disorder specialist who practices in Clifton, said his patients have made him aware of Fernald-related health concerns.
"Any time they have an illness, they always want to know if it's from Fernald," he said. "But without having access to all the numbers (and Fernald health studies), you don't know if it's a significant factor."
Dr. Essell said he follows a common-sense approach and warns his patients of the added risks of smoking and naturally occurring radon gas that can accumulate in homes. But once a patient has been exposed to radiation or some other cancer-causing agent, there isn't much that can be done.
He recalled one elderly patient who was diagnosed with colon cancer about a year ago: "Before that, he used to joke that he was probably the only one who worked at Fernald who didn't have cancer." In most cases, "the damage has already been done. So what you're hoping to do is catch diseases early, while they're still potentially curable," Dr. Essell said.
That's where community awareness comes in.
Susanne Pickering, a CDC - ATSDR health education specialist, said doctors who take part in the training will learn how to question patients about their possible exposure to Fernald toxins. They will be told which symptoms could point to a radiation-related disease. And the resources of the CDC and ATSDR will be placed at their disposal.
"There is a struggle in communicating risk (to patients). It's always hard to walk the line of being truthful and honest and yet not unnecessarily alarmist," she said.
Yet some members of the health effects subcommittee say a little alarm might be what it takes to make residents aware of their potential risk -- and to get them to quit smoking or have their homes tested for radon. And it could jolt physicians into action.
"We're going to have to work with physicians so they can work with their patients," Dr. Frazier-O'Bannon said. "Sometimes doctors have to keep pounding away (with prevention advice). Sometimes that's what it takes."
