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Fwd: '50s Nuke Fallout Hit Spread in US

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bob
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Subj:    '50s Nuke Fallout Hit Spread in US
Date:    97-07-30 20:57:23 EDT
From:    AOL News

<HTML><PRE><I>.c The Associated Press</I></PRE></HTML>

      Associated Press.
      Fallout from the tests spread across much of the country, but
based on mathematical models and earlier studies, exposure rates
were highest in 12 states east and north of the Nevada desert,
where the bomb tests were conducted. Because the total exposure was
tied to such factors as weather patterns and milk-consumption
rates, some hot spots were isolated.
      In Montana, for example, most of the western part of the state
was exposed to the highest levels of fallout, but in the eastern
part of the state, only one county - Petroleum - was a hot spot.
      Other states with high-dose counties were South Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Idaho, Nevada, Arkansas, Wyoming,
Colorado and Utah.
      The data, compiled by the National Cancer Institute as part of a
federal study, is the first to show high exposure rates outside
Nevada and Utah.
      The new information is likely to set off calls for federal
compensation to some residents where the highest exposure was
predicted. Some Utah residents have already been paid by the
government for living in high-exposure zones; this study shows that
thousands of residents of other states may have received the same
exposure.
      NCI officials declined to discuss the report or the potential
health effects of the fallout. But the highest average exposure in
the hot spot counties - 16 rads for adults and up to 160 rads for
children - far exceeds the 10-rad level at which the government
recommends people be monitored by a doctor.
      The exposure rates for children are up to 10 times higher than
the adult rate because radioactive iodine was spread largely
through contaminated milk, and children tend to drink more milk
than adults.
      Iodine-131 has been linked to, but not proved to cause, thyroid
cancer. Activists say the suggestion of a link is strong enough
that people who grew up in the hot spots need immediate medical
monitoring.
      NCI researchers are expected to release the report Friday, 14
years after they were asked to begin the research. The AP and other
news organizations published some details of the study last week,
but the specific counties that received the most radiation have not
been identified publicly.
      The AP received a draft version of the fallout data Wednesday
from a source with access to the study who asked not to be
identified further.
      The institute's decision to not immediately discuss the findings
drew criticism from members of Congress.
      ``If the government for any reason was derelict in releasing the
report, that's a very serious matter,'' said Rep. John Thune, a
South Dakota Republican who grew up in a county that adjoins that
state's two hot spots.
      The delay caused concern among some people who thought they
might have been exposed to high levels of radiation as children.
      One woman who began trying to trace the fallout after reports
last week that upstate New York had been contaminated said the
government should have listed the hot spots as soon as the
information became available.
      Joy Hoagland, who now lives in Greenwood, Neb., said her father,
a heavy milk drinker, died of an unusually rapid thyroid cancer.
Thyroid cancer is typically slow-growing and highly curable.
      ``It just sent chills down my back,'' said Hoagland, who worried
that she and her sister could be at risk. ``We don't want to die
like our dad did.''
      The NCI data shows that the area around Albany, N.Y., had
elevated radiation readings, but not high enough to be classified
as a hot spot.
      The nuclear tests looked at by the NCI were conducted from 1951
to 1958. The report totals more than 100,000 pages.
      EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press Writer Lauran Neergaard in
Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
      AP-NY-07-30-97 2050EDT
      <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>
</I></PRE></HTML>


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