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ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths
Well, here we go again. Feel free to write the editors of USA Today.
The article is in the 2/28/2002 edition, but may not be available for too
long.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
-----Original Message-----
Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths
By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY
USA TODAY obtained portions of the study, which was
supposed to be finished more than a year ago.
"There should be no more waiting," says Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, who pushed the Department of Health
and Human Services to conduct the study in 1998.
"People are still waiting for real communication on
their exposure risks and steps they can take."
The study's estimates of radiation dispersal are
based on complex computer analyses of weather
patterns, population trends and other data that can
help gauge public exposure to fallout from
aboveground nuclear tests.
The cancer figures are a general nationwide
estimate - there is no way to link specific cases
to fallout. The study does not assess cancer risks
in other countries.
The data show that global fallout blanketed much of
the USA, with heavy pockets in Iowa, Tennessee,
California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Fallout
from the Nevada tests settled more in the mountain
and Midwest states, including Utah, Idaho,
Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
The study measures exposure to an array of fallout
elements based on county of residence, birth date
and factors such as consumption of foods that
absorb fallout.
It concludes that about 22,000 cancers, half of
them fatal, probably occurred from external
exposure to radioactive fallout. Those could
include everything from melanoma to breast cancer.
The study attributes thousands of additional
cancers to internal radiation exposure, such as
inhalation or eating tainted food. Those cancers
include at least 550 fatal leukemias and about
2,500 thyroid cancer deaths.
Nuclear weapons powers "owe the world a real
accounting of what they did to its health," says
Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research. "The U.S. has been the only
honest country so far."
To learn more, visit http://www.usatoday.com/
Comments or concerns? Please e-mail us at
mailto:emailnewsletters@usatoday.com
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