Experts to conduct NRC-sponsored cancer risk study, USA, (Deadline: 30 September 2010)

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is seeking nominations for membership on the “Committee on the Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations near Nuclear Facilities: Phase 1,” part of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-sponsored, state-of-the-art study.

Information on the study background, task and schedule can be found on the Internet at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/cancerriskstudy.

Nominations (including nominee name, contact information, and biographical information if available) will be accepted through Sept. 30, 2010, and can be submitted by email (crs@nas.edu), phone (202-334-3066), or fax (202-334-2077).

Two primary criteria will be used by the NAS to screen committee nominations.

(1) Technical expertise – nominees should have expertise and experience in one or more of the following technical disciplines:

· Demography/spatial analysis · Dosimetry · Epidemiology (radiation and general) · Health physics · Industrial toxicology · Medicine/oncology · Nuclear engineering (familiarity with nuclear plant operations) · Public health · Radiobiology · Radionuclide fate and transport and modeling (air and water) · Risk communication/public communication · Social science (environmental justice) · Statistics/Biostatistics.

(2) Conflict of Interest – nominees should not have any financial or other interest that would conflict with their service on the committee.

The NAS project will provide an up-to-date version of the 1990 U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) report, “Cancer in Populations Living Near Nuclear Facilities”. The NRC uses the NCI report as a primary resource when communicating with the public about cancer mortality risk in counties that contain or are adjacent to nuclear power facilities. In the new study, the NRC is also interested in having the NAS evaluate cancer diagnosis rates, as well as exploring how to divide the study areas around the facilities into geographical units smaller than the counties used in the NCI report.

The NCI report studied more than 900,000 cancer deaths from 1950-1984, using mortality records collected from counties that contain nuclear facilities. The researchers evaluated changes in mortality rates for 16 types of cancer in these counties from 1950 until each facility began operation, up until 1982. Cancer diagnosis information was only available for four facilities located in Iowa and Connecticut, due to the lack of this type of data being collected. The NCI report showed no increased risk of death from cancer for people living in the 107 U.S. counties containing or closely adjacent to 62 nuclear facilities, including all of the nuclear power reactors operational before 1982.

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