AW: [ RadSafe ] 51 years later, cancers from Bikini Atoll H-bomb tests only half over

[Franz Schönhofer]

To cite messages from news.yahoo or abc.net or any other newspaper or
media is in my opinion an offence to radiation protection professionals.
They with almost no exception do not contain any information which would
make it possible to control whether the claimed effects are correct or
not - I miss any data on contamination. Of course they are retrievable
in the open literature - but please do this exercise yourself before
claiming whatsoever. 

Two comments: The effects from the Marshall Islands explosions have been
studied since decades. Take Andrew McEwans comments not only serious but
as the ultimate facts - he is one of the most experienced researchers in
this field - if not  t h e  most experienced one and he is truly
independent. Take into consideration that the explosive yield of the
nuclear tests at the Marshall Islands was mostly higher by orders of
magnitude compared to the French tests at Mururoa and Fangataufa. 

Second comment: The history of nuclear bomb testing at the Marshall
Islands and its effect - whether on Japanese fishermen or on the
"relocated" population - is very well documented. It is available in
scientific reports and radiation protection professionals as well as the
common public need not ABC-news or Yahoo. Nothing has been hidden. 

I therefore do not understand what your message is about, what it wants
to show or prove. If you mourn the people who suffered from it, for
instance because of thyroid cancer, please seek the source of their
sufferings not on RADSAFE but with your own US administration. But be
careful, you might be accused of being anti-US. 

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von James Salsman
> Gesendet: Montag, 18. April 2005 06:39
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] 51 years later, cancers from Bikini Atoll H-bomb
> tests only half over
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1347234.htm
> 
> A United States study has found that the number of cancers caused by
> hydrogen bomb testing in Marshall Islands is set to double.
> 
> The study by the US government's National Cancer Institute (NCI)
> estimates 530 cancers have already been caused by the tests.
> 
> It points to the 1954 explosion of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb
codenamed
> Bravo.
> 
> The study warns that another 500 cancers are likely to develop among
> Marshall Islanders who were exposed to radiation more than 50 years
ago.
> 
> The NCI completed the study last September but it was only publicly
> released last week after officials from Marshall Islands noticed a
> reference to it in a US congressional report.
> 
> 
>
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1508&e=2&u=/afp/marshall
su
> snuclear
> 
> US study finds H-bomb tests still causing cancer in Marshalls 50 years
on
> 
> Sun Apr 17, 4:49 PM ET
> 
> MAJURO (AFP) - A US study has found that the number of cancers caused
by
> hydrogen bomb testing in the Marshall Islands is set to double, more
> than half a century after the tests were conducted in the tiny Pacific
> nation.
> 
> The study by the US governments National Cancer Institute (NCI)
> estimated 530 cancers had already been caused by the tests,
particularly
> the explosion of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb codenamed Bravo on March
1,
> 1954.
> 
> It said another 500 cancers were likely to develop among Marshall
> Islanders who were exposed to radiation more than 50 years ago.
> 
> "We estimate that the nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands
> will cause about 500 additional cancer cases among Marshallese exposed
> during the years 1946-1958, about a nine percent increase over the
> number of cancers expected in the absence of exposure to regional
> fallout," the NCI study said.
> 
> The study said because of the young age of the population when exposed
> in the 1950s, more than 55 percent of cancers have yet to develop or
be
> diagnosed.
> 
> The NCI completed the study in September last year but it was only
> publicly released last week after officials from the Marshall Islands
> noticed a reference to it in a US Congressional report and requested a
> copy.
> 
> It was prepared for the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural
> Resources, which is scheduled to launch hearings next month to review
a
> petition from the Marshall Islands seeking more than three billion
> dollars in additional compensation for nuclear test damages and health
> care.
> 
> At the time of the Bravo test at Bikini Atoll, US officials played
down
> the health implications for islanders.
> 
> Bikini Islanders were not evacuated despite their land's being
engulfed
> in snow-like radioactive fallout for two-to-three days after the Bravo
> bomb, which was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.
> 
> Although many islanders developed severe radiation burns and had their
> hair fall out as their land was engulfed in fallout, US Atomic Energy
> Commission authorities issued a statement following the test saying
> "there were no burns" and the islanders were in good health.
> 
> US officials later allowed islanders to return home to live in
> radioactive environments without performing any cleanup work on their
> islands.
> 
> The US paid 270 million dollars in a compensation package in the
> mid-1980s part of which went to the Majuro-based Nuclear Claims
Tribunal.
> 
> But the tribunal says only a limited amount was made available for
> payouts and has described the original settlement as "manifestly
> inadequate."
> 
> 
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