The U.S.‘government is at- tempting to coverup the health effects of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. the editor of Harrowsmith magazine has charged.
Thomas Pawlick, who spoke recently in Waterloo, said the American officials have made every attempt to prevent in- formation from reaching the public which shows a link be- tween 430 infant deaths in Pennsylvania and the Three Mile accident. v
He also said the commercial media and the nuclear indus- try were instrumental in the cover-up. _
A similar cover-up on a smaller scale, has also ocurred in Kingston, Ontario, ‘where government officials re- fused to release information after a plume of radiation from a nuclear reactor in New York state drifted over the city in 1975 and 1976.
According to Dr. Ernest Sternglass, professor of radia- tion physics at the University of Pittsburgh. the number of infant deaths in Pennsylvania almost doubled -in the four months after the accident. in
. the northeastern United
. States, over the same period, there were 430 more infant deaths than would normally be expected. The greatest in- crease in infant deaths oc- curred in areas closest to the nuclear reactor.
The fetus is most vulnerable to radiation poesoning during
it; iifih aria ‘sixifi nonm‘ai d‘é'?’
velopment, according to Stern- glass. Thus the babies most affected, by the Three Mile ls- , land accident would have been born three to four months later. It is a “strange coinci- dence" that infant deaths were also the highest three to four months after the acci- dent, said Pawlick. Pawlick also foLind a sharp
increase in infant deaths in , Kingston after a large release _
of radiation fromthe Nine Mile Pointnuclear reactor in New York state. Winds Could have carried the radiation across Lake Ontario to Kingston, only 50 miles away. I
government." _
\
But the Ontario EnViron» ment Ministry refused to say how ‘much radiation had reached Kingston. Both Har- rowsmith Magazine and the
Kingston Week Standard newspaper “badgered the gov- ernment for weeks and weeks” without success.
“I think they’re afriad of what the figures would reveal, that's why they’re not releas. ing them," said Pawlick. “That, to my mind, is a cover- up on the part of the Ontario
Sometimes however, Thursday, January 29,1981, page 9
Three Mile Island ' our er U n
to confuse the public with statistics. .
Pawlick said the nuclear in- dustry in the United States is so influential that it has forced, both the government and the‘ press to cover-up the health ef- fects of the accident.-
He searched through news- papers and magazines in the eastern United States and “found absolutely no refer- ence in Time or Newsweek. or. the New York Times to people dying at Three Mile Island. We called a large number of en-
.. ‘.-Ol-
wuinl‘ ’l "’ germ-r ‘31 Jill .
dealing with public health." ‘ MacLeod was immediately tired. "He was replaced by a man who is closely tied to the Public Utilities in Pennsyl— vania. He, needless to say, has had very little to say about the public health effects of Three Mile Island," said Pawlick. After his dismissal, MacLeod revealed that the Departmernt of Health had found a marked upsurge in in- fants born with thyroid dis- orders in the Pennsylvania counties downwind from the .5
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The cover-up by the Ameri- can government after the acci- dent at Three Mile Island was much more extensive, accord- ing to Pawlick. It involved the firing of Dr. MacLeod, Pennsyl- vania’s Secretary of Health; a printing error in the U.S. Vital Statistics; contradictions of published medical journals; re- fusal to carry out investiga- tions: and deliberate attempts
vironmental groups in the States, even anti-nuclear groups and none of them knew anything about anyone dying at Three Mile lsland."‘
Dr. Gordon MacLeod. Penn- sylvania's Secretary of Health at time of the accident, urged “full public disclosure of all the faCts known by the state government about the ac‘ci- dent, particularly all details
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l reactor. T yror isorders can
be caused by excess radiation. and may re5ult in infant defor- mities, mental retardation or death.
MacLeod said health de- partment data agreed with Sternglass, showing an in- crease in infant mortality near the reactor. '
Dr. Frank Greenburg, of the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. said the oc-
curence of thyroid disorders in newborns in Pennsylvania in 1979 was the lowest in North America. But 'statistics published in a medical journal contradicted Greenburg. In a telephone interview, when Pawllck asked Greenburg to explain the descrepancy, he was put on “hold”. A secretary said Greenburg had been call- ed away on an emergency, and that it would not be worthwhile to contact him later. ; Dr. Webster, a veterinarian
who lives near the Three Mile Island reactor, noticed a sud- den increase in birthing dif- ficulties amongst farm animals after the accident. In the Summer of 1979, he per- formed “two Caesarean deliveries a week” among goats and sheep. His usual rate was one per year. He also found a large increase in stillbirths and birth defects in domestic animals.
Webster asked the state agricultural department, the health department and the en- vironment department to in- vestigate. “They all refused,” said Pawlick. “No examina- tion has been conducted. and as far as the state of Penn- sylvania is concerned, none ever will be."
The U.S. Bureau of the Cen- sus. who breduced the Vital
Statistics Reports used by Sternglass, claimed that- a printing error had occurred in a recent report. “Oddly enough, it’s been 50 years since such an error appeared, in the Vital Statistics, and odd- iy enough that error occurred in exactly the place where Sternglass’ calculations need~ ed it," said Pawlick.
“There is no absolute proof that anyone died at Three Mile Island, all there is, is a lot of evidence that looks very suspicious. . .The proper study has not been done, and unti it is, we won't know whether anyone died at Three Mile Island, or whether anyone’s dying anywhere from nuclear energy. The question is open and government authOrities are derelict in their duty if they don’t answer it."
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The vegtablel factories
will rely on artificial lighting instead of the
The days of the traditional food farm may be numbered. ' _
7 Two of America's biggest corporations have announced plans next year to open "vegtable factories" ‘ The Control Data
Corporation and the Whittaker Corporation
are both planning to build huge, indoor facilities that will grow heads of lettuce in nutrient laden water instead of soil.
~ . Both ccmpanies expect to be raising about 3 million heads of lettuce per acre of land,
land v- said than
' soon
canpared to the 30,000 heads per acre of land on a traditional farm.
sun for growing, and the
and labour costs are to be much lower on traditional
Business Week
maga21ne says that if the concept works for lettuce, _ vegtable factories will
be turning out other
leafy greens as well.