Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.07.2013, Blaðsíða 10

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Behind this research is Aðalbjörg Kristb-
jörnsdóttir, who graduated from the Uni-
versity of Iceland last year with a Master’s
degree in public health science. For her
thesis, she conducted an observational
study of cancer cases among residents of the
Mývatnssveit region in the north and Hver-
agerði in the south, from 1981 to 2010.
Geologically speaking, those are the
youngest areas of Iceland. In some places
the bedrock is still hot and provides the
warm water in hot springs, geysers and
natural baths for which Iceland is famous.
The comparison areas in the study were the
Eastfjords and the Westfjords, areas with
some of the island’s oldest bedrock, which
has long since cooled down.
Common cancer
“Without a doubt, there were far more in-
cidents of cancer, especially breast cancer
and a certain type of skin cancer, amongst
those who live in the two areas we studied,”
Aðalbjörg says of her results, which con-
firmed a suspicion that arose when living in
her hometown, Húsavík. “I looked around
me and felt there were way too many people
getting sick with cancer, in my social circle
alone,” she says. “I thought there must be
some reason behind it which hadn’t been
discovered yet, something we were not pay-
ing enough attention to.”
Thus, she took a thorough look at her
immediate environment where the com-
mon denominator was geothermal energy.
“I’ve always been passionate about en-
vironmental issues and I had sometimes
wondered whether the geothermal water
might be affecting us more than we re-
alised,” she explains, “and it’s never been
fully investigated since we started utilis-
ing it decades ago.”
Specifically, Aðalbjörg found a 22%
increased chance of getting cancer of every
type for people living in high temperature
geothermal areas, with the most significant
results being a 59% increase in breast can-
cer in women, a 61% increase in skin cancer
(basal cell carcinoma of the skin) and a 64%
increase in lymphatic and haematopoietic
tissue cancers.
When she and her supervisor Vilhjál-
mur, a doctor in epidemiology, presented
the results of the study to authorities in both
Mývatnssveit and Hveragerði, Aðalbjörg
says people there were quite shaken and are
keen on further research.
Too early to say
Being the ever so careful scientist, Aðal-
björg emphasises that it’s still too early to
say exactly whether the geothermal areas
have negative long-term effects on people’s
health. “We’re not drawing detailed con-
clusions as we’ve only found a correlation.
For all we know, further studies might
show that the actual cause for the increase
is something completely different. In any
case, I think it’s necessary to continue this
research.”
To that end, Aðalbjörg and Vilhjálmur
have recently finished another study, which
was recently published on the website of
International Journal of Cancer. In short,
it supports their initial findings. This study
focuses on the areas that have utilised a hot
water supply generated from geothermal
wells since before 1972, comparing cancer
incidents there with areas that don’t have geo-
thermal hot water supplies in the cold areas in
the east and west of Iceland.
“There were clues in the first study that
caught our attention,” Aðalbjörg explains.
“The skin cancer dispersed differently within
the geothermal areas than the other cancers.
So it occurred to us to look at what those par-
ticular areas had in common, which turned
out to be the geothermal hot water supply,
and the results show that there’s every reason
to investigate this further.”
The second study shows a 15% in-
creased chance of getting cancer for those
living in areas benefitting from a geother-
mal hot water supply compared to areas that
don’t. The increased rate in breast cancer in
women is 40%; in lymphatic and haemato-
poietic tissue cancers it is 45% and in basal
cell carcinoma of the skin it is slightly more
at 46%. But the most significant increase is
in prostate cancer, at 61%, and kidney can-
cer, at 64%.
It became clear in this second study that
gas emissions in geothermal areas are not
causing an increase in lung cancer among
the residents, as there’s no difference be-
tween the frequency of lung cancer cases in
the hot and cold areas. So Aðalbjörg wants
to focus on the hot water and is planning
a more specific study, which will be the
founding part of her doctoral thesis in public
health science.
“These first two studies were just a start-
ing point. We now need to analyse the water
and also get access to information about
how long these individuals lived in the geo-
thermal areas before they were diagnosed.
Hopefully we’ll get permission to do that so
we can continue the investigation,” Aðalb-
jörg says, stressing that these initial results
should not be over interpreted.
Similar research has been carried out
abroad like in New Zealand where a cor-
relation between geothermal areas and
increase in cancer cases was also found.
“But there they focused more on linking
specific types of cancer to the geothermal
areas, like breast cancer, whereas we took
into account all cancer incidents registered,”
Aðalbjörg says. Aðalbjörg and Vilhjálmur’s
studies therefore indicate that the supplied
geothermal water might be having a broader
effect on the users’ health than the foreign
research has shown.
After decades of utilising geothermally
heated water, it is perhaps high time to find
out whether it really is safe in the long run.
Still, Aðalbjörg doesn’t believe that the out-
come of future research could mean the end
of the joys of hot water, and says there’s no
need to panic. “I only aim to make our envi-
ronment safer. The more we know about the
hot water, the more likely it is we can make
the necessary changes to ensure we can con-
tinue using it without having to worry about
our safety.”
Icelanders have long benefitted from inhabiting a relatively young landmass, using the abundance of geothermal energy to
heat homes and swimming pools and even converting it to electricity. However, new research indicates that living with the
luxury of geothermal energy may come at a price: research shows that certain types of cancer are more frequent amongst
residents of high temperature geothermal areas than cooler areas in Iceland.
Is There Something In The Water?
Cancer is more prevalent in high temperature geothermal areas
by Ingibjörg Rósa Björnsdóttir
Iceland | FAQ
I looked around me
and felt there were
way too many people
getting sick with can-
cer, in my social circle
alone. I thought there
must be some reason
behind it which hadn’t
been discovered yet,
something we were
not paying enough at-
tention to.
“
„
Alisa Kalyanova
Continues over
10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 9 — 2013
Good mooorning, Reykjavík! Lovely
day to be alive, eh? Sun is shining,
birds are chirping…Well, maybe
the sun's not really shining con-
sidering Reykjavík saw only 121.7
hours of sun during the month of
June, the lowest number of hours
recorded since June 1995. Mean-
while, Akureyri saw over 260 hours.
Maybe we should make like geese
and head north for the summer.
Although the geese around here
don't have it so easy after all, as
whining municipalities and busi-
nessmen have been assured that
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, the
Minister for the Environment and
Natural Resources and Minister of
Fisheries and Agriculture, will not
sign off on a proposal outlining in-
creased environmental protection
of Þjórsarver. This environmental
let down clears the road for Lands-
virkjun, Iceland's largest energy
producer, to dam the Þjórsá river.
The dam would submerge all of
the area's surrounding vegetation,
which happens to host a large pro-
portion of the world's goose popu-
lation. It seems like the only birds
chirping will be found in Kópavogur,
where a recent mandate was pro-
posed to keep cats indoors during
periods when birds are nesting in
town.
While Landsvirkjun may be clanging
glasses over the clearance of their
proposed dam area, another energy
company, HS Orka, has less busi-
ness to celebrate. Norðurál's plans
to build an aluminium smelter in
Helguvik have been smouldered.
Besides low aluminium prices,
Norðurál is not willing to pay HS
Orka the amount that they must
necessarily charge for the energy
to power the smelter. Negotiations
continue, but things aren't look-
ing good for the smelter. So far the
score's tied, one point big industry,
one point environment.
Just by preventing the construction
of these two projects the scale tips
in favour of the environment, as a
recent report by RUV shows a 9%
decrease in greenhouse gas emis-
sions between 2008 and 2010, due
mainly to less emissions from trans-
portation, and a recession of emis-
sions by construction companies.
So leave your car in the garage
and hop on those cycles, Iceland.
The City of Reykjavík is providing
even more incentive to go green
NEWS IN BRIEF
JULY
by Parker Yamasaki