A Response to Sharpe's Comments

Abstract

In an earlier issue of the International Journal of Health Services, the author described a statistical link between cancer mortality increases in the area near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and radioactive emissions from the nuclear weapons plant located in that city. Excess increases in local cancer death rates occurred in Anderson County and in rural, mountainous, and downwind counties, each of which received levels of radioactivity above those received elsewhere in the local area. C. McRae Sharpe of Tennessee Medical Management in Oak Ridge has questioned the validity of some of the findings and introduced new data to support an opposing contention that no excess cancer occurred near Oak Ridge. In this response, the author shows how each issue raised by Sharpe does not alter the original article's conclusions, and how the data Sharpe introduced actually support those conclusions.