The "Tooth Fairy" Cons a Connecticut Politician

John DeStefano, the Democratic candidate for governor, called on Gov. M. Jodi Rell to fund a $25,000 study on radiation in baby teeth that she decided not to undertake six months ago.

DeStefano spoke briefly in front of Millstone Power Station on Route 156 in Waterford before a small gathering of members of the Southeastern Connecticut chapter of the National Organization for Women, a group called “Kids Against Cancer,” and the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone.

The goal is not to “demonize” nuclear power, where some of the harmful radioactive isotopes are thought to come from, but rather to “get the facts,” said DeStefano, the mayor of New Haven.

Oh really? As many of our long-time readers will remember, this is all part of Joseph Mangano's Radiation and Public Health Project, a travelling snake oil show that moves from state to state once public health officials come to the conclusion that its claims are all wet.

Here's what we wrote back in March 2005 when CNN did a piece on Mangano's claims:

NEI Executive Vice President Angie Howard was interviewed for the segment, where she explained that Sr-90, which has a half-life of 28 years, exists in the environment primarily due to aboveground nuclear weapons testing once undertaken by the U.S. and other countries. Further, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been monitoring for Sr-90 and other isotopes for years -- even before nuclear power plants began operating, in order to establish baseline data against which future radiation levels could be compared.

Consistently, the NRC has found no appreciable changes from background radiation near nuclear plants. In all, eight state departments of health have investigated Mangano's claims, and all eight states (Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Michigan) refused to validate them.

Of those states, I think the best response came from the New Jersey Commission on Radiation Protection. Here's what they wrote in a letter to then-New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey:

The Commission is of the opinion that "Radioactive Strontium-90 in Baby Teeth of New Jersey Children and the Link with Cancer: A Special Report," is a flawed report, with substantial errors in methodology and invalid statistics. As a result, any information gathered through this project would not stand up to the scrutiny of the scientific community. There is also no evidence to support the allegation that the State of New Jersey has a problem with the release of Sr-90 into the environment from nuclear generating plants: more than 30 years of environmental monitoring data refute this.

In other words, the state of Connecticut ought to save its taxpayers some money and send Mangano and his quackery packing.

For more background on the "Tooth Fairy" Project, click here for a summary of the issue, and here for a copy of the NEI fact sheet.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics, Joseph Mangano, Health Physics

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NEI Nuclear Notes

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