Correspondence (letter to the editor): Against All Logic

The article is factually inaccurate and misleading. The summary says: "The question whether leukemia rates are increased near nuclear power plants is controversial." This statement is not correct. It is scientifically proven that the number of cancers and leukemias in children is higher the closer they live to a nuclear power plant. The authors themselves have provided proof with their extraordinarily laborious study. The statement that the causes of the cancers are unknown is equally misleading. In the context of the study, causes other than emissions from nuclear power plants were excluded. It was investigated whether the cancers were due to pesticides or other possible confounders. But no such confounder was found.

The Epidemiological Study on Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants (KiKK Study) explicitly investigated a causal association between radioactivity from nuclear power stations and cancers. This is the unequivocal message of a 2006 publication from the Mainz childhood cancer registry. The study methods state that the individual distance of the residence of the children with cancer was used as a substitute for individual radiation exposure.

In our opinion it contradicts any logic that the authors retrospectively exclude this part of the study design and thus do not accept their own findings. We therefore wish to ask for whose benefit the study was conducted. At least such a "chiseled" interpretation helps to keep nuclear power stations running.