Multinational Monitor

JUNE 2000
VOL 21 No. 6

FEATURES:

The World Bank's Revolving Door: Share Program Exchanges World Bank and Corporate Employees
by Charlie Cray

Warning: World Bank Policies Destroy Forests. Internal Report Documents Bank Contribution to Deforestation
by Korinna Horta

Death by Overwork: Corporate Pressure on Employees Takes a Fatal Toll in Japan
by Darius Mehri

INTERVIEWS:

The Fight for Water and Democracy
an interview with
Oscar Olivera

Damming Laos, Damning the Poor
an interview with Witoon Permpongsacharoen

Unhealthy Policies from the World Bank
an interview with Dr. Vineeta Gupta

DEPARTMENTS:

Behind the Lines

Editorial
Close Down the Masters of Reinvention: The Case for a World Bank Shut Down

The Front
Radiation: Children at Risk

The Lawrence Summers Memorial Award

Names In the News

Resources

The Front

Radiation: Children at Risk

Infant death rates near five U.S. nuclear plants dropped immediately and dramatically after the reactors closed, a recent study shows.

Moreover, dramatic decreases in childhood cancer cases and deaths from birth defects, which are affected by radiation exposure, occurred near one of the closed reactors.

The study suggests that the health of 42 million people in the United States who live downwind and within 50 miles of a nuclear plant may be affected by these reactors, according to the study's author, Joseph Magnano.

The study was conducted by the New York-based Radiation and Public Health Project and published in the spring issue of the scientific journal Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology.

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., model Christie Brinkley joined Representative Michael Forbes, D-New York, and others in calling upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to consider whether adverse health effects are associated with nuclear plant operations before renewing nuclear power plant licenses.

Brinkley is a board member of the STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) Foundation, a group formed in 1997 by concerned Long Island residents.

"As a mother of young children who lives near nuclear facilities, I worry daily that radiation from these plants may be deadly to our children," Brinkley said. "So far, the federal government has buried its head in the sand. If closing the nuclear power plants was not responsible for the decline in infant deaths, what was?"

The nuclear industry condemned the press conference as "another misleading instance of science by celebrity."

In a one-page rebuttal to the study, the Nuclear Energy Institute said that the annual exposure to the nearest resident from a U.S. nuclear power plant has been less than one millirem, compared to the annual average exposure from nature of 300 millirem.

And the industry cited a March 1991 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association which examined more than 900,000 cancer deaths using county mortality records collected from 1950 to 1984.

Dr. John Boice, who conducted that study, said that "from the data at hand, there was no convincing evidence of any increased risk of death from any of the cancers we surveyed due to living near nuclear facilities."

The NRC does not consider the potential adverse health effects of radioactive emissions when evaluating license renewal applications.

Owners of 28 nuclear reactors at 17 nuclear facilities around the country are scheduled to seek license renewals by 2003. The NRC has never voluntarily studied the link between radioactive emissions from nuclear plants and patterns of cancer.

Mangnano, the study's author and a research associate at the Radiation and Public Health Project, examined infant death rates in counties within 50 miles and in the prevailing wind direction of five reactors: Fort St. Vrain (located near Denver, Colorado), LaCrosse (near LaCrosse, Wisconsin), Millstone/Haddam Neck (near New London, Connecticut), Rancho Seco (near Sacramento, California) and Trojan (near Portland, Oregon).

In the first two years after the reactors closed, infant death rates in the downwind counties under 40 miles from the plants fell 15 to 20 percent from the previous two years, compared to an average U.S. decline of just 6 percent between 1985 and 1996. In each of the five areas studied, no other nuclear reactor operated within 70 miles of the closed reactor, essentially creating a "nuclear-free zone."

The study detailed the plunges in newly diagnosed leukemia and cancer cases and birth defect deaths in children under five years in the four-county local area downwind from Rancho Seco. This decline has continued through the first seven years after the June 1989 closing. In contrast, the local infant death rate rose in the two years after Rancho Seco began operations in 1974.

"This article is the first to document improvements in health after a nuclear plant closes," says Mangano. "It supports many other studies showing elevated childhood cancer near operating reactors. The federal government allows nuclear reactors to emit a certain level of radiation, saying that the amount is too low to result in adverse local health effects. However, this study clearly calls that assumption into question, as do other studies."

The press conference was held on the fourteenth anniversary of the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power reactor. Increased infant cancer and death rates after Chernobyl have been documented, not just in the former Soviet Union, but in Western Europe and the United States, where Chernobyl fallout levels were deemed by regulators to be within safe limits.

"On this day in particular, which is the fourteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia, we need to address the very real and legitimate concerns of people who live near nuclear reactors," said Forbes, whose eastern Long Island district lies across the Long Island Sound from Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut. "At the very least, the government has a responsibility to determine whether emissions from these plants are harming people."

U.S. nuclear plants seeking re-licensing this year include Oconee Nuclear Station in northwest South Carolina, Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville, Arkansas, Edwin I. Hatch in southern Georgia, and Turkey Point near Miami, Florida.

In 2001, plants expected to seek re-licensing include Catawba, which lies on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina, North Anna, located near Fredericksburg, Virginia, Surry, near Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Peach Bottom, located near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Recently, the government approved a license renewal application for Calvert Cliffs, near Baltimore.

For some of those who live near reactors, the government's inaction has been maddening. Randy Snell, a New York resident who lives near the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), learned several years ago that his 8-year-old daughter had developed a rare soft tissue cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma.

Snell has uncovered 19 other cases of the same rare cancer in Suffolk County. In one area near BNL, the rate of this cancer in young children since 1994 is 15 times the national average.

"I have no doubt that radiation from nuclear reactors sickens people who live nearby," Snell says. "What is really disheartening, though, is that state and federal public health agencies haven't lifted a finger to confirm the link between Brookhaven and all these rare child cancers. I hope this study forces them to act."

-- Russell Mokhiber


THE LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD

 

The June 2000 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* goes to the authors of an article appearing in the May 18, 2000 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, "A Comparison of Nefazodone, the Cognitive Behavioral-Analysis System of Psychotherapy, and Their Combination for the Treatment of Chronic Depression." Thanks to the New England Journal's strong disclosure standards, the authors -- all with primary affiliations at major research universities -- are required to disclose relevant financial relationships. The disclosure list was so long that the Journal chose to publish it only on their web site. We thought it striking enough both to give the authors the Lawrence Summers award and to publish the list of financial relationships in full:

Supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Martin Keller has served as a consultant to or received honorariums from Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest Laboratories/Parke-Davis, Wyeth - Ayerst, Merck, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Organon, and Pharmacia - Upjohn. He has received research grants from Wyeth - Ayerst, SmithKline Beecham, Upjohn, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Forest Laboratories, Zeneca, and Organon. He has served on the advisory board of Wyeth - Ayerst, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories/Parke-Davis, Organon, SmithKline Beecham, Merck, Janssen, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Zeneca, Scirex, and Otsuka.

Dr. Daniel Klein
has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Dr. David Dunner
has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, SmithKline Beecham, Glaxo Wellcome, and Eli Lilly. He has received research grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has received speaker's honorariums from Bristol-Myers Squibb, SmithKline Beecham, Glaxo Wellcome, Eli Lilly, Organon, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Alan Gelenberg
has received grants and research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Organon, Pfizer, Lilly Research Laboratories, Janssen, Merck Sharp & Dohme, SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth - Ayerst, Hoechst Marion Roussel, and Forest Laboratories. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham, Janssen, Lilly, Forest Laboratories, and Parke-Davis. He is a stockholder or has other ownership interest in Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, and Eli Lilly. He has served as a consultant to Eli Lilly, Scios, Forest Laboratories, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Janus Pharmaceuticals, Best Practice, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Dr. John Markowitz
has received speaker's honorariums from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Organon, and Pfizer.

Dr. Charles Nemeroff
has been a consultant to or received honorariums from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest Laboratories, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Mitsubishi, Neurocrine Biosciences, Organon, Otsuka, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, Sanofi, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has received research support from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest Laboratories, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Organon, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. James Russell
has been a consultant to or received honorariums from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Quintiles. He has received research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Pharmacia - Upjohn, Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth - Ayerst, Shire, and Quintiles.

Dr. Michael Thase
has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome/Cerenex Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Organon, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has received grant and research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lipha Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Organon, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Pharmaceuticals, Glaxo Wellcome/Cerenex Pharmaceuticals, Organon, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Madhukar Trivedi
has received research grants from Abbott, Akzo (Organon), Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, MeadJohnson, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest Laboratories, Pharmacia - Upjohn, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. John Zajecka
has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Glaxo Wellcome, Organon, Otsuka America, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and Sanofi Research. He has served as a consultant to or has served on the advisory board of Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer/Roerig, SmithKline Beecham, Upjohn, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Janice Blalock
has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Dr. Charles DeBattista
has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Scios, SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth - Ayerst, and Organon. He has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome, Pfizer, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Pharmacia - Upjohn, PharmaPrint/ABA, SmithKline Beecham, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Glaxo Wellcome, and PharmaPrint.

Dr. Jan Fawcett
has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo, Eli Lilly, Organon, Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth - Ayerst, and Zeneca. He has served as a consultant to Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EM Industries, Forest Laboratories, Glaxo Wellcome, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and SmithKline Beecham. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer/Roerig, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Robert Hirschfeld
has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Organon, and Pfizer. He has served as a consultant to or on the advisory board of Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Wellcome, Forest Laboratories, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham, Janssen, Organon, Parke-Davis, and Pharmacia - Upjohn.

Dr. James Kocsis
has had research contracts with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Forest Laboratories, Eli Lilly, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has received speaker's honorariums from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Forest Laboratories, and Eli Lilly. He owns stock in Pfizer and Forest Laboratories.

Dr. Susan Kornstein
has received research grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Glaxo Wellcome, Forest Laboratories, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, and Biovail. She has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Pharmacia - Upjohn. She has received honorariums from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Glaxo Wellcome.

Dr. Philip Ninan
has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Organon, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, and Solvay. He has served as a consultant to Pfizer, TAPPharma, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Organon, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay, Janssen, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Barbara Rothbaum
has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. She has been a member of the advisory board of and a speakers' bureau sponsored by Pfizer.

Dr. John Rush
has received grants and research support from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cyberonics, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories/Parke-Davis, Glaxo Wellcome, Janssen, Novartis, Organon, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth - Ayerst, and Zeneca. He has served as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cyberonics, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories/Parke-Davis, Glaxo Wellcome, Janssen, Merck, Organon, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has been a member of speakers' bureaus sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cyberonics, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories/Parke-Davis, Glaxo Wellcome, Organon, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, and Wyeth - Ayerst.

Dr. Alan Schatzberg
has served as a consultant to or received honorariums from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Corcept Therapeutics, Forest Laboratories, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Organon, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia - Upjohn, Sanofi, Scirex, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay, and Wyeth - Ayerst. He has received research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and SmithKline Beecham. He has equity ownership in Corcept, Merck, Pfizer, and Scirex. The other authors, with no relevant financial ties, were: James McCullough, Bruce Arnow, Francis Borian, Darlene Jody, Gabor Keitner, Lorrin Koran, Rachel Manber, Ivan Miller and Dina Vivian.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine, May 18, 2000, Vol. 342, No. 20, www.nejm.org/content/2000/0342/0020/1462.asp


*In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" Summers wrote. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.

 

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