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HEW's massive nuclear probe

No one has died, and perhaps no one will, but the lingering effects of radiation from the nuclear accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island continue to haunt local residents, to say nothing of the neighbors of nuclear facilities elsewhere in the U.S. To ease those fears, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr. last week made good on a promise: he announced details of a four-pronged, long-range study of all families and plant workers possibly affected by last March's near disaster.

The massive project marks a grim scientific milestone of sorts. While retrospective studies were made of Japanese A-bomb victims after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is the first ever undertaken to examine effects of low-level radiation from essentially the time of exposure. The HEW studies at a glance:

> A census of 17,000 households containing 50,000 residents within a five-mile radius of the crippled plant. The six-week census, to be funded by the Center for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute, will collect names and medical histories, as well as the whereabouts of household members during the accident.

>A Pennsylvania health department survey of all pregnant women and their offspring within a ten-mile radius of the plant, to determine any increase in miscarriages, premature births or infant abnormalities and early deaths. The hope: to confirm predictions that no such ill effects are likely.

>A registry of plant workers at Three Mile Island and a recording of the amount of radiation each received. Unlike U.S.

Army soldiers and Utah residents exposed to fallout from the A-bomb tests of the 1950s and early '60s, the workers all wore dosimeters--simple instruments for measuring radiation. Their records will be maintained and the workers observed for radiation effects like leukemia. The study's sponsors: the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

>The National Institute of Mental Health will inquire into the accident's psychological and behavioral impact. Its study will also seek new ways of coping with emotional stress in a future crisis.

Califano emphasized that launching the studies does not reflect any new alarm. Nor did he back off from estimates that the accident will add only one cancer death to the 325,000 expected in the region's population of 2 million. Despite the HEW chiefs reassuring words, the atmosphere in the Three Mile Island area remains charged with emotion.

Dairy Farmer Clair Hoover, whose pastures are barely five miles from the nuke, has reported 19 dead cows in the past six weeks. Although a simple infection may be responsible, as it often is during calving season, Hoover admits: "I can't help but have my thoughts." William Peffer of nearby Newberrytown, who had evacuated his family to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., says that his wife still wakes in a cold sweat at night.

These symptoms of postaccident trauma are confirmed by doctors. Family Practitioner Dr. John Barnoski of Middletown says that he has been seeing at least four patients a day with symptoms of new emotional distress. Says he: "I have had responsible husbands and fathers in my office unable to cope with everyday problems. I have seen fear and frustration in the eyes of young couples as they bring their babies in for checkups." Adds the local doctor: "If the nuclear plant resumes operation, these anxieties and fears will remain and probably increase."

Unless, of course, the Government studies provide assurance that there is really nothing to fret about.

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