No link between cancer, radar seen By Stephen Smith
Globe Staff / December 15, 2007
State disease investigators could find no evidence linking an Air Force radar system in Bourne to an unusually high number of bone cancer cases among Cape Cod children, according to a report released last night.
Seven Cape children were diagnosed with a rare cancer called Ewing's family of tumors between 1995 and 2004, more than three times the number that would be expected based on national estimates, environmental health specialists from the Department of Public Health found.
Families of the children approached the state health agency and asked it to conduct an investigation, paying particular attention to whether emissions from the PAVE PAWS early warning radar system might have played a role. Cape residents have expressed concern repeatedly about the potential danger of radar emissions from the Massachusetts Military Reservation, fearing that there was a cancer cluster.
The centerpiece of the state's investigation was an effort to measure emission levels at cancer patients' homes and compare those readings with measurements taken at comparable houses with no incidence of bone cancer. If the readings were significantly higher at the patients' homes, then that would provide a strong clue that the radar might be to blame.
Instead, there was no difference, according to tests performed by a company hired by the state. Three of the children diagnosed with bone cancer actually lived in areas with some of the lowest radar emission levels, said Suzanne Condon, an associate commissioner of public health who presides over the state agency's environmental health branch.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/15/no_link_between_cancer_radar_seen/uhc comment: Women on Cape Cod have the highest incidence of breast cancer in the country --> http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/969/context/archive