WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - People who lived near a polluted creek in Missouri during the 1940s to 1960s may now have a higher risk of getting cancer, according to new research.
The study looked at Coldwater Creek in St. Louis County. During World War II, the U.S. government worked on building atomic bombs, and leftover radioactive waste from that project was stored near the St. Louis airport. Some of that waste leaked into the creek, which flowed through neighborhoods where many families lived.
The research team surveyed over 4,200 adults who lived in the area as kids between 1958 and 1970. Many of them had donated their baby teeth years ago for earlier radiation studies. In this new study, they were asked about cancer and other health problems.
Researchers found that children who lived within 1 kilometer of the creek had an 85 percent higher chance of developing certain cancers as adults, compared to those who lived over 20 kilometers away. These cancers include leukemia, thyroid cancer, and breast cancer, all of which are known to be linked to radiation exposure.
Published in the JAMA Network Open, the study noted that about 25 percent of the participants had been diagnosed with cancer. The farther away they lived from the creek, the lower their risk.
'Our research indicates that the communities around North St Louis appear to have had excess cancer from exposure to the contaminated Coldwater Creek,' said environmental epidemiologist Marc Weisskopf.
Experts who reviewed the study called the findings worrying. The researchers also said that older studies claiming there was no cancer risk were flawed because they focused on people living there now, not those who lived there as children.
The team hopes their work pushes the U.S. government to take responsibility and encourages more care with nuclear-related projects in the future.
'These findings may have broader implications - as countries think about increasing nuclear power and developing more nuclear weapons, the waste from these entities could have huge impacts on people's health, even at these lower levels of exposure,' Weisskopf commented.
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