Piketon’s Town Hall will be a big deal for the community of Piketon, Ohio, which for 70 years has been suffering the effects of radioactive contamination from the Portsmouth Nuclear Site (PORTS), 4 miles south of the village.  

The Town Hall will be hosted by reporter Duane Pohlman of WKRC TV in Cincinnati. It will be a forum to give voice to the people in the area who have suffered cancers and other illnesses in their families.

Several radioactive isotopes have been found in Department of Energy (DOE) monitors outside PORTS and in offsite samples taken for the DOE by Solutient Technologies and analyzed by Auxier & Associates. Dr. Michael Ketterer, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry at Northern Arizona State University, will also speak. He has analyzed samples taken from outside PORTS and has also found radioactivity. Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano will speak online from New Jersey. He has reported that the premature death rate in Pike County is twice the national average. PORTS looms large as a suspect in these illnesses.

Several types of cancer are directly linked to radioactivity. Radioactivity, however, can affect every part of the body – not just causing cancer. It can raise blood pressure which in turn can cause many health problems. One of the most concerning is birth defects and the passing on of problem traits to subsequent generations.