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Fwd: 50's Nuke Test Fallout Widespread
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Subj: 50's Nuke Test Fallout Widespread
Date: 97-07-25 20:04:38 EDT
From: AOL News
<HTML><PRE><I>.c The Associated Press</I></PRE></HTML>
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) - People as far away as the East Coast may have
been exposed to as much radiation fallout from nuclear tests in the
1950s as residents directly downwind from the Nevada blasts,
according to preliminary information from a National Cancer
Institute study.
Young children's exposures may have been 10 times the average in
the worst hot spots, mostly because they drank contaminated milk,
the government said Friday.
But no one knows whether the exposures were enough to cause
thyroid cancer. The NCI refused Friday to unveil its list of the 24
U.S. counties that had the most fallout. Nuclear watchdog groups
derided the delay, saying the government has an obligation to test
and, if necessary, treat those exposed.
Sources familiar with portions of the secret report say areas
with the highest fallout include Albany, N.Y., and parts of
Massachusetts, Missouri, Tennessee, North and South Dakota, Idaho
and Montana.
The NCI plans to release some fallout maps with a summary of the
100,000-page report on Wednesday. The full report won't be
available until September.
One independent expert cautioned that people cannot draw a line
between the possible fallout doses and cancer, especially 40 years
later.
``I would not be greatly concerned,'' said Dr. Clark Heath of
the American Cancer Society, who said previous studies of
radioactive iodine-131 have suggested a cancer link but not proved
it. He said small doses over time, as the Nevada blasts appeared to
cause, are less worrisome than one-time big doses.
``There's a lot of uncertainty about how one translates this
kind of dose information into actual risk,'' Heath said.
But children exposed to iodine fallout from the Chernobyl
nuclear plant accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986 have
higher rates of thyroid cancer, according to studies.
People who lived directly downwind of the government's atomic
bomb tests, especially in southwest Utah, already were known to be
exposed heavily. The government has paid compensation to some.
But wind and rain can carry radiation far afield, so President
Reagan 14 years ago ordered the NCI to examine fallout in each of
the 3,071 counties in the 48 contiguous states between 1951 and
1958.
The result: All 160 million residents at the time received some
fallout, study author Bruce Wachholz, NCI's radiation effects
chief, said in an interview.
Reseachers did not actually test any people. But based on
mathematical models, they hypothesized that the average thyroid
dose nationally was 2 rads, about the same amount of radiation a
person absorbed from a common medical test of that era.
But people in the two dozen counties with greatest concentration
of fallout may have received an average 16 rads, the study found.
As part of an ongoing study of fallout at the Hanford, Wash.,
nuclear plant, doctors have recommended anyone exposed to 10 rads
or more be monitored for health effects.
And children ages 3 months to 5 years who lived in those hot
spots could have received up to 160 rads, because they drank more
contaminated milk and their thyroids were smaller, Wachholz said.
Especially at risk were people who drank goats' milk, which
appeared more tainted than milk from cows.
``If you were a child that lived in those counties throughout
the testing period, when you have your annual physical, ask your
physician to check your thyroid,'' Wachholz advised.
But Wachholz declined to name the hot spots, saying maps
pointing them out will be released next week.
Bob Schaeffer of the watchdog Military Production Group,
complained that the cancer institute has had that data for as long
as five years and is still refusing to release it.
``We want this data out, we want this studied, we want them to
tell the truth,'' he said. ``It should be a public responsibility
to locate and monitor those people, and if they turn out to be at
risk, to care for them.''
The NCI report is a mathematical model - scientists' best
estimate - of the fallout. For 90 nuclear tests that emitted
iodine-131, NCI researchers dug out 1950s weather data to track
each day of each test in every county, following wind and rain
patterns.
Then they went through dairy records to determine if herds
grazed where the fallout was deposited and where their milk was
shipped, and compared that with population records.
Contaminated milk was the highest risk, but smaller exposures
came from other dairy products, vegetables and inhalation -
although iodine-131 dissipates within two months.
Associated Press reporter Paul Sloca in Sioux Falls, S.D.,
contributed to this story.
AP-NY-07-25-97 1958EDT
<HTML><PRE><I><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2> Copyright 1997 The
Associated Press. The information
contained in the AP news report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without
prior written authority of The Associated Press.<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3>
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