Childhood Leukemia Linked To Government Carelessness

California has the worst Nuke Plant

California has its share of nuclear power plants: Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant, Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant, Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Stanislaus Nuclear Power Plant, Sundesert Nuclear Power Plant, and Vallecitos Nuclear Center (proposed, not built).

The one with the worst safety record, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, had to be shut down in January of last year due to "improvements and upgrades" (of all things a plant could be shut down for):

The San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant has the worst safety complaint record of all U.S. nuclear reactors according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) safety allegation data.
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The reactors at the plant have been shut down since 1/31/2012 due to radiation leaks and decades of premature tube wear in newly replaced steam generators – the worst in the nation.

(San Onofre Safety). Recently Dredd Blog pointed out that expert whistle blower scientists working at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicate that nuclear reactor regulation is a joke (When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 4).

That agency's propaganda covers up significant dangers and thereby exposes the public to dangerous risks of various sorts (ibid).

Of course the nuclear regulators do not come out and say "we could care less", because they have a long standing aversion to truth as well as a long standing affection for propaganda ("radiation levels are not dangerous").

"Why are leaks of various sorts a concern," you may be wondering:

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL] is a form of leukemia, or cancer of the white blood cells characterized by excess lymphoblasts. Malignant, immature white blood cells continuously multiply and are overproduced in the bone marrow.
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Acute refers to the relatively short time course of the disease (being fatal in as little as a few weeks if left untreated) to differentiate it from the very different disease of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which has a potential time course of many years. It is interchangeably referred to as Lymphocytic or Lymphoblastic. This refers to the cells that are involved, which if they were normal would be referred to as lymphocytes but are seen in this disease in a relatively immature (also termed 'blast') state.
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In general, cancer is caused by damage to DNA that leads to uncontrolled cellular growth and spread throughout the body, either by increasing chemical signals that cause growth or by interrupting chemical signals that control growth.
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ALL is associated with exposure to radiation and chemicals in animals and humans. The association of radiation and leukemia in humans has been clearly established in studies of victims of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor and atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

(Acute lymphoblastic leukemia,Wikipedia). The threshold for initiation of ALL is low because it only requires one damaged cell:

The development of ALL, like other malignancies of hematologic origin, is believed to involve a transformation event that occurs in a single progenitor cell that has the capability for indefinite clonal expansion. The leukemogenic event may occur in committed lymphoid cells of B- or T-cell lineages or in early precursors, which gives rise to the different subtypes of ALL based on the stage of lymphoid differentiation of the cell in which the event occurred.

(Topics in Pediatric Leukemia, emphasis added). A research project involving the study of infant teeth is still ongoing:

Are tiny Amounts of Strontium-90 Dangerous to Human Health?
Sr-90 is a known carcinogen. When it lodges near the bone marrow, where stem cells form blood and immune cells, there is an increased risk of leukemia and other cancers. Our initial research found that a minute amount of Sr-90 in baby teeth is associated with nearly a doubled risk of childhood cancer and a high incidence of breast cancer.
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Can the Radiation in Baby Teeth be from Past Bomb Tests?
No, because the observed vs. expected levels of Sr-90 in baby teeth have been increasing during the 1970-1990s, after U.S. bomb testing ended in 1963 and soon after commercial nuclear reactors were built throughout the United States. Most Sr-90 in teeth now comes from nuclear reactor emissions, not past bomb tests. Our initial results show significantly higher Sr-90 levels in western Long Island, New York (which is surrounded by three nuclear reactors) that in eastern Long Island (which is not downwind from nuclear reactors). Bomb test fallout would have deposited Sr-90 evenly over a small geographical area, such as Long Island, New York.

(The Baby Teeth Study, emphasis added). Radiation is more powerful than antibiotics in terms of signal disruptions that can result in ALL and other maladies.

The general statement in the quote above ("cancer is caused by damage to DNA that leads to uncontrolled cellular growth and spread throughout the body, either by increasing chemical signals that cause growth or by interrupting chemical signals that control growth") indicates that clear signals are required for healthy cell performance.

Other Dredd Blog System posts have focused on the reasoning and scientific basis for considering potential serious damage that can be caused in cells when they are confused by conflicting, or otherwise improper, signals:

Regulatory conflicts occur when two signals that individually trigger opposite cellular responses are present simultaneously. Here, we investigate regulatory conflicts in the bacterial response to antibiotic combinations.
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Quorum sensing bacteria produce and release chemical signal molecules ... bacteria use quorum sensing communication circuits to regulate a diverse array of physiological activities ... Although the nature of the chemical signals, the signal relay mechanisms, and the target genes controlled by bacterial quorum sensing systems differ, in every case the ability to communicate with one another allows bacteria to coordinate the gene expression, and therefore the behavior, of the entire community ... signal integration abilities are critical to survival.

(Microbial Hermeneutics, bold in original; cf. Microbial Hermeneutics - 3). The body's constant internal communication is critical to both human cell and microbial cell behavior:

We are in constant communication with our microbes, and the messages are broadcast throughout the human body.

(On The New Meaning of "Human", bold in original). The reference to "our microbes" concerns the microbial cells within us that are symbionts to us, without which we could not properly function.

In fact, there are 10 times more microbe cells than human cells which compose each of us, there are 100 times more microbial genes than human genes in us, microbes are 99% of our genetic make-up, therefore, microbes and their ability to communicate within us are vital for keeping us alive and healthy (Microbial Hermeneutics - 2).

Thus, signal disruption between or among cells is very dangerous, because defective signals are known to be a cause of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) "either by increasing chemical signals that cause growth or by interrupting chemical signals that control [excessive] growth".

Proper signaling requires the ability to select then send the right signal, to receive the right signal, and to interpret the signal properly once received.

One cause of signal disruption is known to be nuclear radiation ("ALL is associated with exposure to radiation ... The association of radiation and leukemia in humans has been clearly established").

Other studies have linked the Fukushima radiation leaks to increased dangers in California, which add to the dangers that are already coming from The San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (~22,000 deaths in U.S. due only to Fukushima).

So, people on the west coast in general and southern California in particular need to take precautions to protect the children and the elderly, because those are the two groups who are most at risk (Radiation and Public Health Project).

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See also French ALL Near Nuke Plants and Childhood Leukemia Spikes Near Nuclear Power Plants

"It doesn't take an accident for a nuclear power plant to release radioactivity into our air, water, and soil. All it takes is the plant's everyday routine operation, and federal regulators permit these radioactive releases." (Routine Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants in the United States: What Are the Dangers?).

Routine operation of San Onofre means routine sickness and death (Report PDF).

Remember Bikini Atoll (Bikini Atoll nuclear test: 60 years later and islands still unliveable).