Preliminary research shows that 15,000 cancer deaths in the United States might have been caused by radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear weapons testing, according to a progress report on a long-delayed government study.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, released part of the report Thursday as activists accused the government of deliberately stalling and demanded congressional hearings into the matter.
It is now clear that our nation's nuclear weapons program has a long and dark legacy punctuated by thousands of cancer fatalities," Harkin said in a statement. "If the threat of exposure had been related to Americans sooner, early diagnosis and treatment may have saved many of these lives. The American government has a responsibility to keep the American people well-informed - in this instance they have surely failed."
The National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepared the report for Congress last August, noting that its estimates could have a considerable margin of error due to uncertainties in the research. The study is not meant to be a conclusive finding but a preliminary look at the feasibility of in-depth research.
Harkin, who had requested the report, released its executive summary, which suggested that:
20,000 nonfatal cancers among US residents born after 1951 might be linked to fallout from above-ground nuclear weapons tests that were conducted between 1951 and 1962, the year the testing was banned.
Far more fallout than previously known reached the United States from tests done in the former Soviet Union and on several Pacific Islands by the United States and Britain.
Fallout from US tests in Nevada spread substantial amounts of radioactivity across many states, particularly Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
When fallout from all domestic and foreign tests was combined, no US resident born after 1951 escaped some exposure. Heavy pockets from both sources of fallout were found in Iowa, Tennessee, California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
The estimates on radiation dispersal were based on computer models of variables like weather patterns and population trends.
FOLLOWS 1997 STUDY
The study was ordered after a 1997 study found that a single radionuclide, which is a by-product of above-ground nuclear testing, was tied to between 11,000 and 212,000 cases of thyroid cancer.
The new study examines 18 additional radionuclides linked to the tests, and addresses potential cancers in red bone marrow as well as the thyroid gland.
Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group created to end nuclear testing, criticized the government for the time gap between the 1997 study and the current one.
"The reality behind these two reports - and the years that passed between them - is that Americans are dying from irresponsible activities in our nation's past," PSR deputy director Kimberly Roberts said in a statement. "We must monitor these populations and take action to educate the public and their health care providers. We've done them harm and we must take responsibility."
Harkin urged the government to release the full study, not just the progress report. "There should be no more waiting for information about the risk of nuclear exposure, no more bureaucratic delays and no more stalling," he said.
A Harkin spokesman, Bill Burton, said that while the progress report was dated August 2001, it was not received by Harkin's office until earlier this month.
PATTERN OF DENIAL'
Another activist group, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, said the continued delay in releasing the full study reflects a "pattern of denial of the damage to public health caused by the US nuclear weapons venture."
The alliance, an umbrella group representing communities living downwind from nuclear weapons sites, said the new report was supposed to have been completed by July 2000.
In last August, the alliance wrote Health Secretary Tommy Thompson requesting the immediate release of the report, called the "Feasibility Study of the Health Consequences to the American Population from Nuclear Weapons Tests Conducted by the United States and other Nations."
The group said Thursday that it wants the National Cancer Institute to release the full study. The progress report said the study would be released once it is peer reviewed.
The alliance also plans to press for congressional hearings, particularly because it feels some lawmakers and the Bush administration want to resume nuclear weapons testing.
Burton said Harkin was waiting to see the full report before weighing whether to call hearings.
Bob Schaeffer, the ANA's public education director, said that hearings should be called to start "a comprehensive public health education campaign so that people who are at risk get free medical screening and treatment if they have an illness that may be radiation induced."
Asked if compensation for victims should be considered, Schaeffer said that "compensation may be an issue down the line - but the alliance's primary goal is protecting public health and the environment, not creating windfalls for victims or survivors."
An alliance ally, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research has posted the progress report and additional maps online at www.ieer.org.
(China Daily March 1, 2002)
