Progress Illinois

The first ever long-term study examining the health impact idled U.S. nuclear reactors have on people living near the facilities found a significant drop in cancer incidents since the plant's closing, prompting researchers to call for further study of other populations near shuttered plants — including two in Illinois.  

In a 20-year period since the California Rancho Seco nuclear reactor closed, there were 4,319 fewer cases of cancer reported in Sacramento County, which has a population of about 1.4 million. The shuttered plant is located about 25 miles from the center of Sacramento city.

The cancer drops were most notable in women, Hispanics and children, according to Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and co-author of the report published today in the Biomedicine International journal.

“The need here for more knowledge is great given how many reactors are near major population centers,” Mangano said on a conference call with reporters today. “The bottom line is clear. We need more information about the long-term impact of low level radiation from both idled and currently operating reactors.”

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Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new report by the Woodstock Institute, prompting researchers to call for further investigation into gender discrimination in lending practices.

After studying 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for the Chicago six county region, which includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the Woodstock Institute found than “female applicants overall were about 8 percent less likely to have purchase mortgages originated and about 21 percent less likely to have refinance mortgages originated than were male applicants.”

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The gender wage gap continues to be an ongoing problem in the U.S. as seen in a new report. A study (PDF) of the wage gap in 20 states drilled down racially to look at the figure for black women, and illuminated some major, and disheartening, disparities.

Nationally, the wage gap for women compared to men is 77 cents on the dollar. For black women, that figure is 70 cents on the dollar when compared to men and an even worse 64 cents on the dollar when compared to white, non-Hispanic men. An analysis of Census Bureau stats by the National Partnership for Women and Families looked at the wage gap for black women 20 states with the highest number of such women working full-time, year-round and found "a pervasive gender-based wage gap in the very states where the majority of them work."

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