Original story: Harvard University TH Chan School of Public Health
U.S. counties near operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) have higher cancer death rates than counties further away, according to a new study led by Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
This study is the first of the 21st century to analyze proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer mortality rates for all nuclear power plants and all U.S. counties. The researchers stressed that while the findings are not sufficient to establish a causal relationship, they highlight the need for further research into the health effects of nuclear power.
This research recently nature communications.
Many studies on the potential link between nuclear power plants and cancer have been conducted around the world, with contradictory results. In the United States, these studies are rare and limited in scope, focusing on a single nuclear power plant and its surrounding community.
To expand the evidence base, researchers conducted a national assessment of nuclear power and cancer mortality rates using “continuous proximity” from 2000 to 2018. They used advanced statistical modeling that captures the cumulative impact of all nearby nuclear power plants, not just one nuclear power plant. Locations and operating dates of U.S. nuclear power plants (and some nearby Canadian nuclear power plants) were obtained from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and county-level data on cancer mortality were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers controlled for potential confounders in each county, including education, median household income, racial composition, average temperature and relative humidity, smoking prevalence, body mass index, and proximity to the nearest hospital.
The study found that U.S. counties near nuclear power plants had higher cancer mortality rates, even after accounting for socioeconomic, environmental, and medical factors. Researchers estimated that during the study period, approximately 115,000 cancer deaths across the United States (about 6,400 per year) were caused by proximity to nuclear power plants. This association was strongest among older adults.
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“Our study suggests that living near a nuclear power plant may carry a measurable cancer risk. That cancer risk decreases with increasing distance,” said the lead author. Petros KoutrakisAkira Yamaguchi, Professor of Environmental Health and Human Settlements. “We recommend that further research be conducted to address the issue of nuclear power generation and its health effects, especially at a time when nuclear power is being promoted as a clean solution to climate change.”
The researchers noted that the results are consistent with those of similar experiments. study They conducted a study in Massachusetts and found higher rates of cancer among people living near nuclear power plants.
They also noted several limitations to the study, including that it did not incorporate direct radiation measurements and instead assumed equal impacts from all nuclear power plants.
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