Study Finds No Rise in Deaths Near A-Plants : Health: Cancer fatalities in 107 counties near 62 nuclear facilities were compared to non-nuclear sites.

A National Cancer Institute study released today found no greater risks of death from cancer for people living near nuclear facilities.

“From the data at hand, there was no convincing evidence of any increased risk of death from any of the cancers we surveyed due to living near nuclear facilities,” said Cancer Institute researcher John Boice.

The researchers from the government NCI studied cancer deaths in 107 counties near 62 nuclear facilities including 52 commercial power plants, one commercial fuel reprocessing plant and nine Energy Department research and weapons facilities.

The researchers compared the death rate from 16 types of cancer in those counties to 292 similar counties without nuclear plants. They found that, overall, death rates were about the same in the counties with plants and in the control counties.

Boice told reporters, however, that because the study relied on data gathered on a countywide level, the risks posed to those people living right next to nuclear facilities might not have emerged.

The study also was limited by the fact that it looked only at cancer deaths and ignored non-fatal diseases.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate committee which oversees federal health policy, said the study should be reassuring to people who live near nuclear plants but said he remained concerned because of the study’s limitations.

“It is not a clean bill of health for the nuclear industry,” he said.

Ironically, in a number of counties with nuclear facilities, the death rate for some cancers fell after the nuclear plants started up.

“The areas around some facilities appeared to have higher risks of leukemia while others have lower risks,” the NCI study said.

The study was started in 1987 after a British survey showed an unusually high number of childhood leukemia deaths near nuclear plants.