Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Expert says radium-linked cancer rate is low

[Updated from 3:26 p.m.] A doctor who testified at this afternoon's Waukesha water diversion hearing is a UW-M School of Public health faculty member and Waukesha resident who said data she just searched show a comparatively low rate of radium-cancer.

Radium contamination in deep well water used by Waukesha and cleaned by its water utility has driven some of the push for a new Waukesha water source - - though for years, Waukesha fought the radium standard for drinking water that had been imposed nationally by the federal government.

The data cited by the doctor will be left with the DNR as it continues its review of Waukesha's application for a diversion of Great Lakes water.

Regrettably, the doctor, like all speakers today, had only two minutes allowed by the DNR, so she really had to shorten her presentation.

I did not catch her name.

I'll go back at it, and am updating several of my posts from today now that I am back at a computer and no longer am 'writing' from a smartphone.

I noted also I'd repeated the word "cancer" twice in the headline, and misspelled "low" and corrected all that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Waukesha School District serves 12,000 students and most every student from k-4 to high schoolers drinks Waukesha Water Utility water at school.

Waukesha Water Utility will need to tell the public, at some point, that they have exceeded the safe radium threshold multiple times since the temporary solution has been implemented as part of the settlement with the Department of Justice.

We cannot risk our children drinking unsafe water that can cause bone cancer in our public and private schools in the Waukesha Water Utility service area.

These reports are filed with the DNR annually as a requirement of the settlement and are public records.

Waukesha needs to install the HMO radium filters on the remaining deep aquifer wells NOW!

Steve Edlund

Unknown said...

Steve, your post seems to assume the City's decision makers (politicians & power brokers) care about our children drinking radium.

I'm afraid you are mistaken.