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Up To 75,000 Cancers From Nevada Tests In 1950s

>From The Nando Times:

http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/health/080197/health10_1763.html



Government estimates up to 75,000 cancers from 1950s bomb tests



Copyright ©1997 Nando.net

Copyright ©1997 The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (August 1, 1997 12:39 p.m. EDT) -- Between 10,000 and 75,000
people exposed in youth to widespread radioactive fallout during 1950s
nuclear bomb tests might during their lives get radiation-linked
thyroid cancer, the National Cancer Institute said Friday.

Government doctors emphasized that ingesting this particular
radioactive substance, iodine-131, has not been proved to cause thyroid
cancer, so their estimate is a worst-case scenario.

If the estimate is accurate, 30 percent of those cancers would have
been diagnosed already, the NCI said. It advised Friday that anyone
worried about childhood exposure to the fallout should get a thyroid
exam during their next visit to a doctor while researchers further
study the possible link.

Thyroid cancer is a fairly rare malignancy and also highly curable.

The announcement came as the NCI unveiled portions of a long-awaited
study that tracked radiation exposure in every county between 1951 and
1958. It found that fallout was more widespread and more intense in
areas hundreds of miles from the Nevada test site than previously
believed.

Everyone living in the 48 contiguous states at that time received some
fallout. But 25 counties -- in Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and South
Dakota -- received high enough fallout to be called hot spots, and
dozens of other counties throughout the Farm Belt and Northwest
received above average fallout as well.

Average national exposure was 2 rads, less than a common medical test
of the era. Hot spots were exposed to an average of 9 to 16 rads, and
children living in those areas received five to seven times the average.

That is because children were more likely to drink contaminated milk,
the main way iodine-131 was spread, and they have smaller thyroids.

The NCI study did not actually test anyone and did not assess the
health risk. But the government already recommends medical monitoring
for people exposed to more than 10 rads of iodine-131.

The agency separately said that if ingesting iodine-131 proves as
cancer-causing as external radiation is, then 10,000 to 75,000 cases
might have been caused by the fallout.

Deciphering whether an individual who lived in a hot spot had
fallout-related cancer may be impossible.

During the 1950s nuclear testing, about 95 million Americans were under
age 20. Based on normal rates of thyroid cancer, the NCI said that
population would get about 420,000 thyroid cancers during their
lifetime. Many of them were exposed to high-dose X-rays during the
1950s that have been proved to cause thyroid cancer.

The 10,000 to 75,000 estimate could be in addition to the expected
cases of cancer.

While an executive summary of several hundred pages and detailed maps
of "hot spots" of radiation fallout have been circulating for months
within the Energy Department and elsewhere, Friday marks the first
formal release.

"It is a remarkable demonstration of either ineptitude or
extraordinarily contrived efforts to withhold information," said Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who has sought for months to have
the findings made public.

He called the decision to withhold the findings until now totally
inexcusable, especially because some details -- such as maps showing
the general location of some of the hot spots -- have been leaked.

"We want this data out, we want this studied," complained Bob Schaeffer
of the Military Production Group, a citizen watchdog organization
involved in nuclear weapons issues.

A rad is a measurement of radioactive energy on human tissue.

The report is described as only a first step in determining what health
impact the radiation might have had. The next step will be to determine
whether the exposures produced more cases of thyroid cancer. And there
remains the question of compensation.

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Federico Pena said it was too early to
say whether any compensation will be considered.

"We are not in a position Friday to begin to estimate what our response
will be," said Pena.


-- By H. JOSEF HEBERT, the Associated Press.


Copyright ©1997 Nando.net

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