Cancer linked to cold war bomb tests:
US accused of withholding report on fallout deaths
"John Wayne, contracted cancer
and died as a result of the fallout from a
bomb test in Nevada, 100 miles downwind
from where he was making a film about
Genghis Khan, The Conqueror, in 1954. "
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday March 1, 2002
The Guardian
A US government study says that the
fallout from cold war nuclear tests carried
out by the US, Britain, France and the
Soviet Union has caused the death of an
estimated 15,000 Americans.
The study was conducted by the National
Cancer Institute and the Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention, but its
publication has been delayed by the US
government. However, excerpts of the
report were obtained by Tom Harkin,
Democratic senator for Iowa, and have
been published on a website run by a
watchdog group, the Institute for Energy
and Environmental Research
(www.ieer.org).
The study estimates that an estimated
80,000 people who lived or who were born
in the US in the past 50 years have
contracted or will contract cancer as a
result of American nuclear tests
conducted in Nevada and the Pacific
ocean, Soviet tests in Kazakhstan and
eastern Russia, French tests in the
Pacific and British tests on Christmas
Island.
Of that number, 15,000 cases are
estimated to be fatal. The study reported
that everyone living on the US mainland
has been exposed to fallout.
"The message is we are all downwinders,"
said Bob Schaeffer, of the Alliance for
Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of
pressure groups. He said the report
summary obtained by Mr Harkin was
dated August 2001, but claimed it had not
been made public because of
unwillingness by governments to
acknowledge the impact of past nuclear
testing programmes.
"There is a pattern of denial by both the
US and UK governments about the
damage done to non-combatants by the
nuclear weapons programme," he said.
"We want to get this information out so
people who live in the areas most affected
can get screened and treated."
The IEER's president, Arjun Makhijani,
said: "This report and other official data
show that hot spots occurred thousands
of miles away from the test sites.
"Hot spots due to testing in Nevada
occurred as far away as New York and
Maine. Hot spots from US Pacific area
testing and also Soviet testing were
scattered across the United States, from
California, Oregon, Washington, and in
the west to New Hampshire, Vermont and
North Carolina in the east."
The $1.85m (£1.3m) study took two years
and measured radioactive isotopes across
the US. Lisa Ledwidge, an IEER biologist
commended the US government for
carrying out an epidemiological study. "It
is the only nuclear weapon state to have
done so," she said. "But it is not enough
to estimate numbers or say you're sorry.
The harm is still occurring."
The tests sent plumes of debris into the
upper atmosphere where it was swirled
around the Earth, depositing highly
radioactive isotopes in the form of rain.
"Any person living in the contiguous
United States since 1951 has been
exposed to radioactive fallout", the study
found, "and all organs and tissues of the
body have received some radiation
exposure."
In the areas worst hit by the fallout, the
impact would have been equivalent to
receiving one chest X-ray a year, higher
than the total recommended for infants or
pregnant women. The death toll from the
fallout was estimated by comparing the
actual incidence of cancer in badly
affected areas with national norms.
In the early days of nuclear weapons
testing, very little or no notice was given
to people living or working nearby. It has
long been speculated that the legendary
actor, John Wayne, contracted cancer
and died as a result of the fallout from a
bomb test in Nevada, 100 miles downwind
from where he was making a film about
Genghis Khan, The Conqueror, in 1954.
By 1980, 91 of the 220-strong cast and
crew had contracted or died of cancer.
However, the connection between the
deaths and the Nevada test was never
proven in court.
The latest study was ordered by Congress
in 1998 after an earlier study, examining
only the dispersal of iodine-131, found that
exposure had been considerable across
the US. The new study was designed to
look into the dispersal of other radioactive
elements and to estimate their impact on
public health.
"The 1997 report indicates that some farm
children - those who drank goat's milk in
the 1950s in high fallout areas - were as
severely exposed as the worst exposed
children after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear
power plant accident. Such exposure
creates a high probability of a variety of
illnesses," Dr Makhijani said. "Yet the
government did nothing to inform the
people in these affected areas."
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