The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors

by Jay Gould

From the rear cover of this 346-page "'The Enemy Within' exposes the startling correlation between deadly diseases and proximity to nuclear reactors. Using data from the National Cancer Institute, state health departments, and the Center for Disease Control, author Jay Gould offers official statistical evidence proving that residents of nuclear counties - the 1,321 counties within 100 miles of a reactor - suffer disproportionately from the interaction of nuclear fallout with industrial pollutants and other sources of urban stress. Gould examines why women in nuclear counties have such a hugely inflated risk of breast cancer, why there are large numbers of premature and underweight births, why AIDS and other immune deficiency syndromes seem to be related more to where you live than how you live. The answers lie in nuclear fallout patterns. In the fifty years since the commencement of the Nuclear Age, over 1.5 million American women have died of breast cancer; prior to 1945 the breast cancer incidence rate had been declining. The anomaly is also true for low birthweights and immune deficiency syndromes. [This book] looks closely at the true cost of nuclear fallout - costs we can no longer afford to pay - and it presents our only reasonable to ban the operation of nuclear power stations, nuclear weapon manufacturing, and nuclear bomb testing."

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996