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Effects of Nuclear Radiation on Pediatric Cancer Near the Nuclear Plants in USA
Nuclear radiation, as a whole, has immensely influenced the lives of many people in the
USA. Consequently, with its many uses, it can be a source of destruction or a lifesaving tool for humanity and the environment. Nuclear radiation has taken part in the history of many countries.
I find the topic very interesting because Bangladesh is recently taken a project on building a power plant to meet the power demands so this topic triggers me to think how this can be beneficial for my country.
More than 20 years after the atomic bomb attack in Japan, a major study said there was no persuasive confirmation of any increased risk of pediatric cancer due to living near nuclear facilities. A study of cancer incidence that was restricted to Iowa and Connecticut, states that research was conducted near nuclear facilities included four nuclear facilities. An analysis on the rate of cancer in children until 2015 reveals limitations: methods used to perform the experiment were not effective enough to detect the risk of pediatric cancer as a result of radiation contamination near the counties with nuclear power plants. Steve Wing stated that “the observed positive distance trend remains unexplained” (418). Taking the results into consideration, the question arises that how has nuclear radiation affected rates (or likelihood) of pediatric cancer near the nuclear plants in the USA? (WC: 225)

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Fairlie, Ian. "A Hypothesis to Explain Childhood Cancers near Nuclear Power Plants." Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 133 (2013): 10-17. ScienceDirect. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
After the incidence of Japan bomb attack, Stewart et al. (1958) observed that incidences of leukemia can increase as a result of radiation exposure. Since then, a number of studies were carried to find the risk factors for leukemia at different levels of nuclear power plant emission.
This article highlights over 60 global studies on pediatric cancers incidences, which includes the
2008 KiKK study by the German government on relative risks in children living within 5km of nuclear power plants. A review of these studies by Fairlie and Körblein, 2010, indicated that many of these studies showed slight increases in childhood leukemia although in many cases these were not statistically noteworthy. Furthermore, it estimates the results of radiation doses to bone marrows of the developing embryos, the subsequent risks of leukemia to young children and the rise in cancer in pregnant women. However, in this article Farile states that “no risk factors of the necessary strength for this [KIKK] effect are known [sic] for childhood cancer and specifically childhood leukemia”(11).
Ian Fairlie is a consultant on radiation risks and a former scientific secretary to the government’s Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters. This article was written in 2013 and is a scholarly peer reviewed. (WC: 205)
Mangano, Joseph J; Sherman; Chang, Carolyn; Dave, Amie; Feinberg, Elyssa; and Firmer,
Marina. "Elevated Childhood Cancer Incidence Proximate to U.S. Nuclear Power
Plants." Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal 58.2 (2003): 74-
82. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.

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The article represents a few studies and focuses on numerous documents on rates of pediatric cancer among the American and other nations’ children living near the nuclear reactors.
It also supports how the radioactive nuclides affect the fetus, the children and the susceptibility to carcinogens. The writers found a consistent pattern of increased childhood cancer rate in all study areas less than 48km from nuclear plants in the eastern United States. The study finds counties than the U.S as a whole that cancer incidence is more prevalent in children less than 10 years, which can be linked with 1 of 9 local cases of childhood cancer. Moreover, it focuses on how different types of cancer are affected by radiation and relates how each one changed after different nuclear incidents. According to the research, leukemia in children in counties near nuclear plants in Pennsylvania exceeded U.S. rates more than other areas of the state. However,
Joseph J, Janette, Carolyn, Amie, Elyssa and Marina stated that their study had several limitations, “thus it is not possible to analyze data over the entire operating life of the reactors”
(81). This article was published in 2003 and the writers were affiliated with the Radiation Public
Health Project, New York. (WC: 205)
Mangano, Joseph J., Jay M. Gould, Ernest J. Sternglass, Janette D. Sherman, Jerry Brown, and
William Mcdonnell. "Infant Death and Childhood Cancer Reductions after Nuclear Plant
Closings in the United States." Archives of Environmental Health: An International
Journal 57.1 (2002): 23-31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
This article discusses the effects of infant death and pediatric cancer after the shutdown of nuclear plants in the United States, which fell greatly in children younger than 5 years. The study notes that when nuclear weapons testing were halted in 1963, the infant mortality rate and childhood cancer decreased resulting in improvements in children’s health. It explains the effects of closing nuclear plants on infant death and childhood cancer. Additionally, the study compares

name 4 the mortality rate in children living less than 64km from reactors. Besides, it mentions that the infant death rates increased in the counties located 64-129 km from the nuclear plants. Further, it compares the level of the radioactive nuclides in local milk after closings and relates low dose radiation exposure to the effects of pediatric cancer. On the contrary, some evidence may not support the unexpected large infant death and decrease in childhood cancer in that population.
According to the authors, there are several factors that limit this study. This article reports conducted jointly by the authors who were affiliated with Radiation and Public Health Project in
Brooklyn, New York. The article appears in Archives of Environmental Health, which is an international journal. It was published in 2002 and is a scholarly peer reviewed. (WC: 205)
Lehnherr, Melinda; Tiefu, Shen and Qiao, Baozhen. “Pediatric Cancer Incidence and Mortality in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants in Illinois”. 06.01 (2006): n. pag. Illinois
Department of Public Health . Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
In 2000, Illinois ranks first among all states for the number of commercial nuclear facilities along with the total nuclear capacity. This scholarly article looks in an examination performed by The Division of Epidemiologic Studies from the Illinois Department of Public
Health to assess the cancer risk of children who lived near the nuclear facilities, which are based on cancer occurrence and mortality data from 1990 to 2002. The types of cancer that were examined repeatedly include leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid, brain and myeloma. However, the article’s analysis of the data asserts that there was no indication of an increased pattern in the cancer incidence rate after the nuclear stations started compared to other counties without such facilities. “The Poisson regression model showed that proximity to nuclear power plants was not a significant indicator of variation of cancer incidence” (Lehnherr, Tiefu, and Qiao 15).

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This article is peer reviewed and scholarly written in 2006. Qiao did his Ph.D in epidemiology from the University of Illinois. Lehnherr is the Assistant Division Chief of
Epidemiologic studies and Shen is the Division Chief of the Illinois Department of Public
Health’s Division of Epidemiologic Sciences. As such, they are considered to be experts in the
5 field. (WC: 201)
Wakeford, Richard. "The Risk of Childhood Leukemia following Exposure to Ionising
Radiation—a Review." Journal of Radiological Protection 33.1 (2013): 1-25. IOP. Web.
1 Feb. 2015.
In this paper, Wakeford reviewed the epidemiological evidence that relates to the risk of childhood leukemia due to the exposure to ionizing nuclear radiation. This article focuses on the author’s view on the effect of ionizing radiation on Leukemia by generally studying children treated with radiotherapy. The author explains what the factors of leukemia are and how the nuclear radiation affects childhood leukemia. Moreover, it describes in details how the research was performed and how different sources affect cancer in children. In contrast to the other sources, this article provides evidences from different cases which suggest and support that the increase in risk resulting from low dose exposure is compatible with the predictions of radiation induced leukemia. A further evidence using CT scans and natural background radiation reports also supports the study.
This article was published in 2013. It appeared in the scholarly publication of the journal of Radiological Protection, a publication that often deals with issues related to scientific fields with the use of radiation. Richard Wakeford received a BSc in physics and a PhD in sub-nuclear

name 6 physics from the University Of Liverpool, UK. He was appointed Visiting Professor in
Epidemiology at the Dalton Nuclear Institute of The University of Manchester, UK. (WC: 203)
Wing, Steve; Richardson, David B. and Hoffmann, Wolfgang. "Cancer Risks near Nuclear
Facilities: The Importance of Research Design and study Explicit Hypotheses”.
Environmental Health Perspectives 119.4 (2011): 417-21. JSTOR. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
In this article, the writers summarize the research design of a study of thyroid disease among people from the Handford site in Washington who was exposed to “radioactive iodine”
(417). It is found that the risk of thyroid disease was similar from radioiodine, even though the doses were different, whereas after the Chernobyl accident, leukemia in children showed an increase risk of radiation. In this article, the authors focus on the high “radiosensitivity” (417) and the ability to categorize populations near nuclear reactors as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission asked the National Academy of Sciences to update a 1990 study of cancer risks near nuclear facilities. However, they found several limitations in their study on pediatric cancer risks near nuclear facilities. As a result, they explained the problems with “assumptions, formation of testable hypotheses, and interpretation of evidence in previous research” (417).
This academic article was published in 2015 in Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) which is a peer-reviewed journal of the United States. Wing and Richardson, are in the
Department of Epidemiology of University of North Carolina and Hoffmann is a Professor of
Population based Epidemiology of Health Care and Community Health at the University
Medicine Greifswald and Head of the Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine
Greifswald. (WC: 205)