Radiation-induced cancer in the population of villages around MAPE Mydlovary

In 1959, the building of chemical preparation plant of uranium ore MAPE Mydlovary was initiated in a small village Mydlovary, near České Budějovice. In October 1962, the operation and processing of the uranium ore started. During operation, about 17 million tons of uranium ore were processed and the material from processed uranium ores was stored into the contiguous sludge lagoons. The operation of this plant was terminated in November 1991. The premises of MAPE Mydlovary were partially liquidated, decontaminated and handed over for privatization, nowadays there are recovery and reclamation works in process. Even though, MAPE Mydlovary is nowadays one of the most dangerous strains for environment, which emerged after mining and processing of uranium ores in the Czech Republic. The projection is to liquidate the consequences of this process for many more years from now. In immediate closeness to the premises of MAPE Mydlovary there lie the villages Mydlovary, Olešník and Zahájí. It can be assumed that during the processing of uranium ores and subsequent storing of waste into the contiguous sludge lagoons there could have been some impact on the inhabitants of these villages by radio nuclides. The possibility that there are still some sources of contamination and effect on the inhabitants of the three neighboring villages cannot be excluded nowadays, even after almost 23 years after the shutdown of the plant. For this reason this diploma thesis is dealing with the effects of the preparation plant MAPE Mydlovary on the inhabitants of Mydlovary, Olešník and Zahájí, specifically on the amount of deaths due to cancer diseases of inhabitants of these villages. Data was collected from October 2013 till April 2014 and it includes figures from the period 1971-2010. It was collected using non-standardized interviews and was provided by practicing physicians of the investigated villages; furthermore, data was collected from websites of the Czech Statistical Office. Aim of this thesis was to analyze and compare the deaths due to cancer diseases of the inhabitants in the surroundings of MAPE Mydlovary and of inhabitants in the whole Czech Republic (whole republic´s cancer disease mortality) and evaluate the possible influence of the radiation load on the number of deaths due to cancer diseases of inhabitants in the surroundings of MAPE Mydlovary. The analysis and comparison of the number of deaths was carried out using statistical research. Non parametric testing was used for the statistical research and the so called Fisher exact test was used, which is carried out by means of statistical software www.ncss.com. For this test the level of significance - = 0, 2 was used. The influence of the radiation load on the number of deaths due to cancer diseases is statistically significant only in the village Mydlovary, where it is possible to prove statistically an increased number of deaths due to cancer diseases in comparison to the number of deaths due to cancer diseases in the whole Czech Republic. Based on the evaluation of the obtained data we can state that the chemical preparation plant of uranium ore MAPE Mydlovary most likely had and still may have a negative impact on the inhabitants of the neighboring villages, especially on the inhabitants of the village Mydlovary. For this reason it is very important to continue with the recovery and reclamation works in the premises of the chemical preparation plant of uranium ore MAPE Mydlovary and their main objective is to protect the inhabitants of surrounding villages against possible exposure to the radio nuclides. Nevertheless, the impacts of processing the former chemical preparation plant of uranium ore MAPE Mydlovary will be eliminated for many more years