Hanford Study To Be Hashed Out Radiation Experts Gather To Critique Cancer Data Blasted By Downwinders

Some of the nation’s leading radiation experts will be in Spokane on Saturday for a daylong public meeting on the controversial Hanford thyroid disease study.

The National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Radiation Effects Research is the final arbiter of the scientific credibility of the study, conducted for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The $18 million study was released Jan 28. It found no link between higher Hanford radiation doses and increased thyroid disease in 3,441 people born near the nuclear reservation between 1940 and 1946.

The findings were immediately assailed by many Hanford downwinders, who say it negates their experiences with thyroid disease.

They were especially angry when the study’s investigators at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said downwinders should be “reassured” by the study.

At a Jan. 29 public meeting in Richland, downwinder Sally Sanders of Kennewick held up a large sign with a pointed message: “I don’t believe it.”

Dr. Scott Davis, a Fred Hutchinson epidemiologist, has defended the study’s science. But he also admits the study’s release was bungled because it came out as a draft without a thorough scientific peer review.

The National Academy of Sciences agreed in April to expand its review to include whether the results were “appropriately communicated.” The review is due to be completed late this year.

“We want to engage the public in a dialogue on this,” said Steve Simon, the NAS senior program officer directing the review.

The panel will hear from ordinary citizens. It also will listen to some of the study’s leading scientific critics.

Since January, several prominent scientists have criticized aspects of the study, including its statistical power, reliance on computermodeled dose estimates and failure to explain why it found so much thyroid disease and early death in the group of people studied.

Other scientists who critiqued the study for the CDC also asked why the study group had a death rate 20 percent higher than normal. An unusually high number died at or near birth, especially in Franklin County, they noted.

This spring, the CDC sought to temper some of the Fred Hutchinson statements about the impacts of Hanford’s radiation releases.

At a public meeting in Spokane in May, CDC epidemiologist Dr. Paul Garbe said the study also showed that thyroid disease and cancer were found in the study population.

Although it found no correlation between higher radiation doses and increased thyroid diseases, the study results “do not prove there is no link between thyroid disease and Iodine 131,” Garbe said.

Of the 3,441 study participants, 19 were confirmed to have thyroid cancer, 249 had noncancerous nodules, 267 had hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), and 34 had Graves Disease, which results in an overactive thyroid.

Saturday’s agenda provides for an examination of many of these issues, including:

How the estimated Hanford doses were calculated for each person studied, and the range of uncertainty in the dose estimates.

Hanford’s Cold War history of radiation releases, and what scientists can conclude about the risks to people living downwind.

The study’s statistical power and design.

How the study results were communicated to the public.

The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Open microphones are scheduled throughout the day. There will be a public comment period from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

The meeting is at the Ridpath Hotel in the Legend A Room.

This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETING Starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Ridpath Hotel. Open microphones are scheduled throughout the day. Public comment from 4:30-5:30 p.m.