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To the Editor: 

Is there a fellow named Steve Geller out there who thinks local environmentalists are hysterical regarding tritium ? Well good for him.. 

The Michael Bauce response to Geller blaming tritium and X-rays for the continuing “rise of cancer “is statistically unsound.  

Yes certainly the amount of cancer deaths in the US has risen but so has the overall population. It is also true that the rate of cancer is higher on a per capita basis but this is primarily due to the increased lifespan in the US. Thanks to water treatment, sewage tretment ,antibiotics and the availability of good food the average lifespan in the US is the highest in history. So it is obvious that that rate of cancer would increase since many people who today get cancer would have long since died of infectious disease in the old days. 

Age adjusted figures put out by the American Cancer Society indicate that the rate of cancer has remained approximately constant since 1930 with the exception of lung cancer attributed to a large increase in the rate of smoking. Therefore tritium, x-rays, cell phones, TV's, electric lines are out as causes of cancer and, if fact, I believe the work of the Lab is part of the fight against cancer. 

Wayne Huber 

Berkeley