Posted September 2, 2008

Are we being treated like laboratory rats?

In our previous article ("Polycythemia Vera Update," August 26, 2008), we strongly suggested that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) take a hard look at the six cogeneration plants in this area as the cause of the 16-fold increase in our polycythemia vera rate.

A reliable source now informs us that the ATSDR and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH) are on the verge of ruling out cogeneration plants as the cause of our cancer epidemic. Their reasoning goes like this.

The ATSDR and the PA DOH believe that polycythemia vera has a minimal latency period of approximately 7 to 10 years from the time of initial exposure to a chemical that causes cancer (carcinogen) to the onset of the disease. It is the position of the ATSDR and the PA DOH that the cogeneration plants haven't been around long enough to be the source of the problem.

The ATSDR and the PA DOH are dead wrong for the following reasons. First, our research shows that the Northeastern Power Cogeneration (NEPCO) facility in McAdoo went online July 1, 1989. The polycythemia vera data were collected for years 2001 to 2005. Thus, the exposure period is between 12 and 16 years.

Furthermore, the Gilberton Power plant was placed in operation in 1988; the WPS Westwood Generation plant was built in 1988; the Wheelabrator Frackville Energy facility became operational in 1988; the Schuylkill Energy Resources, Inc. plant began commercial operations in 1989; and the Panther Creek Partners plant was placed in operation in 1993.

Second, leukemias, diseases similar to polycythemia vera, have latency periods as short as 5 years. The ATSDR and the PA DOH should be using a latency period of approximately 5 to 10 years from the time of initial exposure to the onset of the disease.

Third, it is known that the greater the exposure to a carcinogen, the shorter the latency period. When exposure to a carcinogen is repeated, day after day, for a number of years, the latency period is obscured. In fact, the only way we can know that latency periods exist at all is by controlled studies in which exposure to a carcinogen is followed by a long observation period during which no exposure occurs. We are not laboratory rats and will not be subjected to such study.

Fourth, the ATSDR and the PA DOH are not considering the effects of exposures to multiple carcinogens in this area. Again, we are not laboratory rats being exposed to a single carcinogen in a scientific experiment.

We could go on and on but that won’t be necessary. We have presented enough reasons to show that the ATSDR and the PA DOH would be scientifically wrong at this point to rule out the waste coal cogeneration plants as the cause or substantial factor with our polycythemia vera epidemic.

Posted September 11, 2008

An archaeological team, digging in
Harrisburg, has uncovered
10,000-year-old bones and fossil remains
of what is believed to be Pennsylvania’s first politician.