Society News Archive

5 November 2002

Normal Cancer Rate Found Near Three Mile Island Plant

The New York Times has reported that a new study of 32,100 people living within five miles of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, found no significant difference in the overall rate of cancer deaths compared with the general population. The Times quotes the principle investigator, Dr. Evelyn O. Talbott of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, as saying, "When you compare observed with expected cancer, there was virtually no difference."

The study is being published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institute of Environmental Health. An abstract of the study includes an acknowledgement of the contribution by HPS member Niel Wald.