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Specious Claims About Strontium-90
For several decades, a small group of activists has tried to instill fear in the public that a substance called strontium-90 is evidence that low levels of radiation released from nuclear power plants causes cancer and other health problems in nearby residents. Since the claims first surfaced some 30 years ago, they continuously have been dismissed by mainstream scientists as scare tactics and “junk science,” contributing nothing to finding the real causes of cancer. They are instead manipulations of the public by these groups without any basis in science. These studies are known as the “tooth fairy project.”

In November 2003, RPHP, the group that sponsors most of the strontium-90 claims, said a new study found strontium-90 to be 34 percent higher in baby teeth of children born after 1979 in three Pennsylvania counties than in the rest of the state.

These counties are near the Limerick nuclear power plant and within 80 miles of 11 other reactors. RPHP claims the timing is significant because the first Limerick reactor began operation in 1984 and the second in 1989. RPHP claims the plants are the reason strontium-90 levels in nearby counties were found to be above state and national averages.

RPHP claimed an earlier study in Suffolk County, N.Y., near Brookhaven Nuclear Laboratory, showed a “nearly identical” increase in incidences of childhood cancer and increases in the strontium-90 found in baby teeth. The group claimed that levels of strontium-90 are 50 percent higher in the teeth of childhood cancer victims than in teeth collected from non-cancer patients. Based on these findings, RPHP claimed a connection between radiation and cancer in the county. RPHP made these claims after collecting 95 teeth and testing 61.

But RPHP’s claims do not stand up to scientific scrutiny. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency operates a nationwide network for monitoring radioactivity in the environment. The agency’s measurements indicate that although strontium-90 levels have declined since atmospheric nuclear weapons testing ended, the radioisotope still is detected in the environment, especially in milk, so you would expect to find it in baby teeth.

John Matuszek, former director of the New York State Department of Health’s Radiological Sciences Laboratory, was hired by Suffolk County to evaluate RPHP’s research proposal there. He said the proposed sample sizes were too small and that detectors used in the study were incapable of differentiating between strontium- 90 and naturally occurring radioactive compounds, and that error margins they claimed were implausible. Matuszek said RPHP’s conclusions “have nothing to do with cancer cases.”

“What they do is what’s popularly referred to as ‘junk science,’” said Dr. Joshua Lipsman, the health commissioner in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Indian Point nuclear plant is located.

“We found a number of scientific error, both in measurement and process, in their proposals,” Lipsman said.

The claims regularly surface in areas where nuclear plants are pursuing an extended operating license—a process that requires an environmental review by the NRC. Most recently, these claims surfaced in connection with the environmental review accompanying the renewal of the operating license for the Turkey Point nuclear plant in Florida. In 2000, RPHP released a study titled “Strontium-90 in Deciduous Teeth as a Factor in Early Childhood Cancer,” alleging an increase in cancer incidence resulting from strontium-90 releases from nuclear facilities, evidenced by elevated levels of the substance in children’s teeth.

The NRC, in its 2002 impact statement for Turkey Point, determined that the RPHP study does not present any new information not already dismissed in numerous earlier strontium-90 studies released by the group. The staff also determined that strontium-90 found in deciduous teeth in the vicinity did not result from releases from Turkey Point and that there is no increased incidence of cancer in the area due to Turkey Point operation.

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