Title: Why Marin County Has The Highest Breast Cancer Rates In The US
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Content: Why Marin County Has The Highest Breast Cancer Rates In The US
BY LEUREN MORET
RADIOACTIVE TIMES
VOL. 6 NO. 2 March 2008
RIVERBANKS AND COASTLINES HAVE HIGHEST CANCER RATES
Fresh water has higher concentrations of radionuclides  than seawater because there is a greater dilution factor in seawater, and  salts in seawater control uptake of radionuclides. It is clear that dilution  is not the solution to pollution. Dumping radioactive contaminated materials  into bodies of water has a boomerang effect. It is not long before the  radiation is washing back up on riverbanks and shorelines. In fact, in  the first cancer mapping survey in history (1850-60) in the Lake District  of Britain, Alfred Haviland reported that the highest cancer rates (from  natural background radiation) were along riverbanks and shorelines providing  a strong environmental link to cancer before manmade radiation was introduced  into the environment after 1900. Pre-1900 cancer rates represent the true  baseline for cancer studies. The chance discovery of an abstract in the Journal of  Environmental Radioactivity, "Radiocesium in North San Francisco Bay  and Baja California coastal surface waters", provided me with an answer  to a puzzling question about breast cancer. Hundreds of millions of dollars  have been spent by the University of California to identify the cause of  what may be the highest breast cancer rates in the United States in Marin  County, California, just north of San Francisco.