Ministry of the Environment aces cancer rate pure coincidence

The Ministry of the Environment sees the Asse cancer rate as statistical coincidence

04/12/2010

For the first time, the Federal Environment Ministry has to the increased cancer rate around the dilapidated nuclear waste storage „aces“ positioned. In the Ministry of the Environment, it is believed that the often higher rate of cancer in the national comparison „pure random“ be. On the basis of statistical evaluations alone, no connection can be explained.

According to the latest reports, an increased rate of leukemia and thyroid cancer cases was measured around the severely criticized Asse II nuclear waste storage facility. Environmentalists are satisfied by the results that the dilapidated Asse II plant is causing lasting damage to the health of the people in the region. To date, it is disputed how much the radioactive waste of the system radiates actually radioactive.

A recognizable connection between the cancers in the region and the camp excludes the Federal Government according to recent statements but now. The Parliamentary State Secretary Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) said in response to a request from the Greens, the rising cancer rates in the municipality Asse "can not be explained by the radiation exposure from the aces". After preliminary investigations, the Federal Government came to the conclusion that the high cancer rates in the small region would be "inevitably subject to strong statistical fluctuations". In such analyzes, higher rates of cancer cases could be found "solely on the basis of statistical randomness," since relatively few people live in the community. "To explain the observed increase with radiation, according to the available scientific knowledge about the development of corresponding cancers, the dose would be about 10,000 times higher than observed," wrote the employee of the Ministry of the Environment in the present statement.

In view of this government statement, the Bundestag faction of Alliance 90 / The Greens was bitterly disappointed. Environment spokeswoman Dorothea Steiner (Greens) said that the federal government wanted to keep the fears and worries of the citizens in the region small. People are not taken seriously.

While environmental organizations and doctors' organizations see in the figures a proof of a health risk to people, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) pointed out after disclosure of the data that there was no „causal connection“ between the diseases and the low radiation exposure. Such a connection could be „currently do not prove“. In the last week, it became public that about twice as many cases of blood cancer occurred in the vicinity of the nuclear repository. The number of thyroid cancer is even three times higher than the average national comparison. (Sb)

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Aces: Increased number of leukemia disorders