Fwd: Inquiry into N-tests cancer link

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

News story fyi... Mike (mcbaker@lanl.gov)


>Inquiry into N-tests cancer link
>
>Date: 1/11/99
>
>By GEESCHE JACOBSEN and AAP
>
>The Federal Government is launching a new investigation into Britain's atomic
>tests in Australia, focusing on a Scottish study which found that a rare
>cancer occurs 10 times more often among war veterans who witnessed the blasts.
>
>A spokesman for the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Mr Scott, said the
>Government would soon name an eminent epidemiologist to examine the health
>effects on Australian servicemen who were involved in the nuclear tests in the
>1950s.
>
>A study at Dundee University found that a bone marrow cancer, multiple
>myeloma, occurred 10 times more often among veterans of the tests than in the
>rest of the population.
>
>The British Government has announced that it will also investigate the claims.
>
>More than 20,000 servicemen were exposed to radiation when Britain exploded
>atomic and hydrogen bombs in Australia and the Pacific in the 1950s.
>
>A spokesman for the Atomic Survivors Association, Mr John Hutton, said
>yesterday that it was "about time" the Australian Government looked at the
>British results, but he remained sceptical that it would give veterans
>financial help.
>
>Ex-servicemen who had been involved in nuclear testing were classified in such
>a way that they could not receive a pension, he said. And if they took court
>action, it was up to them to prove the link between their disease and the
>exposure to radiation.
>
>About 3,000 to 4,000 of the servicemen were probably still alive, but their
>average age was 81, Mr Hutton said. "All [the Government] have ever done is
>wait for us all to die."
>
>Mr Scott's spokesman said the review would investigate the Scottish findings
>with reference to the Australian servicemen involved. It would be completed
>"in the medium term" and the Government had established a working party to
>oversee the inquiry. 
>
>The Opposition spokesman on veterans' affairs, Senator Chris Schacht, said the
>Government "should not prejudge the matter". The British Ministry of Defence
>agreed to the investigation after reports about the most recent findings from
>the Scottish study, which was first published in 1997.
>
>A Dundee University researcher, Ms Sue Rabbitt Roff, had called for the
>inquiry after claiming to have found 45 victims of multiple myeloma, 32 of
>whom have died, among 2,000 test veterans.
>
>Professor Deborah Saltman of the University of Sydney said the cancer
>accounted for about 1 per cent of all malignant cancers. It punched small
>holes into the bones, making them brittle.
>
>The Ministry of Defence and the National Radiological Protection Board, which
>will carry out the British investigation, have previously disputed links
>between the disease and the 46 atomic bombs exploded by Britain around
>Australia and Christmas Island between 1952 and 1962.
>
>A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the investigation would be
>carried out to reassure people that the disease was not linked to the tests.
>==========================================================
>
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