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Skin color may determine nicotine dependence

Higher concentrations of melanin -- the color pigment in skin and hair -- may be placing darker pigmented smokers at increased susceptibility to nicotine dependence and tobacco-related carcinogens than lighter skinned smokers, according to scientists.

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Reflections on Three Mile Island 30 years later

March 28, 2009 by Fred Bortz

Thirty years ago today, March 28, 1979, with a former nuclear engineer in the White House and a newly-elected governor in Harrisburg, PA, the United States faced a crisis when a cooling system failure at a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant just south of the Pennsylvania capital threatened the safety of millions of people. Less than two years earlier, I had left a job in the nuclear power industry, disenchanted with my particular management but not with the technology itself.

20 years laters, no significant cancer increase in Three Mile Island residents

In a 20-year follow-up study of mortality data on residents living within a five-mile radius of Three Mile Island (TMI), researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) found no significant increase overall in deaths from cancer. "This survey of data, which covers the normal latency period for most cancers, confirms our earlier analysis that radioactivity released during the nuclear accident at TMI does not appear to have caused an overall increase in cancer deaths among residents of that area over the follow-up period, l979 to l998," said Evelyn Talbott, Dr.P.H., professor of epidemiology at GSPH and principal investigator on the study.

Skin color may determine nicotine dependence

Reflections on Three Mile Island 30 years later

March 28, 2009 by Fred Bortz

20 years laters, no significant cancer increase in Three Mile Island residents

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