On December 11, the Westchester County (NY) legislature voted to appropriate $25,000 to RPHP to study Strontium-90 in baby teeth from local residents living near the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Westchester became the second county to take such an action; Legislators in Suffolk County, also in New York, voted $35,000 in funding for the tooth study in September.

On November 2, RPHP members joined representatives from Standing for Truth About Radiation (STAR), including actor Alec Baldwin, in proposing that the Westchester legislature fund the study. Findings for the first 100 teeth from the area nearest to Indian Point revealed the highest Sr-90 levels in the New York metropolitan area, and one that was rising for children born in the early 1990s now losing baby teeth.

Legislator Thomas Abinanti, a Democrat, presided over the public hearing on November 2, then introduced legislation. The bill passed with bipartisan support; all nine Democrats voted to support the bill, along with four of eight Republicans.

The significance of the Westchester and Suffolk actions is that, for the first time, government officials believe that the harm caused by nuclear reactor emissions are serious enough to study. Previously, only private funds supported RPHP. Safety of nuclear power has been a major issue in Westchester County since a February 15 accident at Indian Point's reactor #2 forced the closing of the reactor. After months of investigation and replacement of defective steam generators, the reactor has yet to reopen.

RPHP officials expect that the new funds will enable them to collect and analyze about 500 teeth from the Indian Point area by early 2002. Research will document the degree to which radiation in the body raised cancer risk, similar to the calculation for Suffolk County, which has produced 560 teeth thus far. (Suffolk results are published in a recent article in the International Journal of Health Services, available on this web site).

Overall, RPHP has now collected 2300 teeth for the study from all areas, mostly from New York, New Jersey, Florida, and California.