Fallout blamed for thyroid cancer

[Jason Armstrong <Jason.Armstrong@halliburton.com>]

This was taken this morning from USA Today.
Jason.Armstrong@Halliburton.com
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Botched fallout study put millions at risk
WASHINGTON - Federal scientists mismanaged a controversial study on fallout
from Cold War atomic bomb tests, failing to detail nationwide health risks
and stalling publication for five years, Senate investigators say. 
In an internal memo prepared for senators leading a hearing on the matter
Wednesday, investigators say the National Cancer Institute "virtually
shelved" findings that fallout from Nevada tests spread over much of the
nation. 
Millions of Americans didn't learn for years that their exposure to
radiation may have left them with a higher-than-usual risk of thyroid
cancer. 
The study, which tracked fallout from the 100 above-ground explosions at the
Nevada Test Site from 1951-1962, was drafted in 1992. But it wasn't released
until USA TODAY detailed its findings in July 1997 - nearly 15 years after
Congress ordered it. 
"At almost every juncture, when officials confronted a choice of providing
detailed information to the public in a timely fashion or (limiting) public
access to its research . . . it chose the latter," said the memo, prepared
by investigators working for Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, ranking Democrat on
the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. 
Investigators also assailed the study's authors for failing to assess health
risks associated with the radiation doses, noting that subsequent
calculations tied the fallout to somewhere between 11,000 and 212,000
thyroid cancers. 
Earlier this month, a blue-ribbon panel of scientists at the Institute of
Medicine confirmed the fallout study's findings, which showed that people
who were children in the Rocky Mountain states and parts of the farm belt at
the time of the tests likely received the most radiation. 
But the panel urged the government not to undertake medical screening or
other services, concluding that such efforts would have little chance of
accurately identifying fallout-related illnesses. 
At Wednesday's hearing, Glenn will ask officials who oversaw the fallout
study to respond to his investigators' findings. 
Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute, said the
study's release was delayed unnecessarily. "A more clear, more rapid and
more aggressive plan for dissemination of the results was called for,"
Klausner said. 
But the memo by Glenn's investigators alleges deeper problems. Among the
findings: 
*	The cancer institute and the Department of Health and Human Services
"performed virtually no oversight" of the project after Congress' request in
1982. Decisions to delay its completion went unnoticed by top officials. 
*	The study ignored Congress' order that the report assess public
health risks from the fallout. Thyroid cancer estimates prepared after the
report's release were "last minute," lacking context. 
*	The cancer institute ignored "potential . . . conflicts of interest"
by assigning the study to a scientist who had worked for agencies that ran
the nuclear weapons program. That scientist, Bruce Wachholz, also helped
defend the government in suits filed by people claiming fallout-related
ills. 
The National Cancer Institute took issue with the conflict of interest
question, saying Wachholz's experience was the reason he was chosen. "We
needed an outstanding radiobiologist to oversee the radiation fallout
study," said spokesman Paul Van Nevel. 
By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

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