Even Low-Level Radioactivity Is Damaging, Scientists Conclude

[caraher]

24. That's far from clear

Last edited Mon Nov 26, 2012, 01:43 PM - Edit history (2)

Even if you take the author of your link at face value in blaming poor water quality, it's not clear that radium is the most important, or even a very important, contributor to low life expectancy. In fact, since life expectancy figures are dominated by causes of death for the very young, early deaths matter most. But the diseases associated with radium ingestion typically take years to develop.

Inhaled or ingested radium increases the risk of developing such diseases as lymphoma, bone cancer, and diseases that affect the formation of blood, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia. These effects usually take years to develop.

It's very unlikely that all radium-caused cases of those diseases, combined, account for the low life expectancy in Mississippi, especially when one considers that many (and probably most) of them come from other factors.