![[homepage]](back.gif){kind=small}
HARKIN CALLS FOR MASSIVE FALLOUT STUDYNEW BILL CALLS FOR FEDERAL STUDY OF ALL NUCLEAR TEST FALLOUT
by Monte Bright January 22, 1997 Since the report of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on radioactive fallout from bomb tests of the 1950,s was leaked to the media some politicians have moved to position themselves.
The NCI report concludes that between 10,000 and 75,000 people were exposed as children to iodine 131 fallout from nuclear bomb tests.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschel D-SD said, "It is a remarkable demonstration of either ineptitude or extraordinary contrived efforts to withhold information." And on November 12, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin sent a press release about legislation he has introduced. The legislation requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to further study the effects of fallout from nuclear weapons testing.
The press release said, " Harkin's bill builds upon the report issued in October by the (NCI) that links nuclear testing in the 1950s to increased rates of thyroid cancer."
The press release continued on: " All the facts should be out on the table," Harkin said. " Medical information related to these atomic tests should be available to the public. This legislation accomplishes this by directing the federal government to comprehensively study the entire health impact of these nuclear tests. No longer will the health legacy of these tests be a mystery to the millions of Americans who were exposed to radioactive fallout. "
"Delay by the NCI in releasing the earlier report created a cloud of suspicion," Harkin said. " This measure mandates that further studies be done in an open manner under a public time line. On this issue, the government can't afford to behind closed doors any longer."
The press release went on to say that Harkin's bill would do the following:
Directs the Health and Human Services Department to conduct studies of the health consequences of nuclear weapons testing. These studies shall be an examination of the health impact of radionucleides resulting from above ground and below ground testing to include, but not be limited to plutonium, strontium-90, iodine 131, and radioactive cesium. The studies shall cover testing by the United States and foreign nations including, but not be limited to, the Soviet Union and its successor states, France, China, India, and Great Britain. The NCI report only covered the radioactive isotope Iodine 131 and only the Nevada Test Site.
Note: the studies would cover domestic U.S. nuclear weapons testing sites outside of Nevada, including New Mexico, Alaska, Colorado and Mississippi.
The bill will require that the studies be conducted in an open manner, and will be reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Energy Related Studies and other entities (unspecified) established by the federal government to insure public accountability.
Harkin is on the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. He will likely include this legislation in next years Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations bill for 1999.
This is the first time some one in a position to do something has suggested publicly that a study be done that includes all nuclear weapons testing and all radionucleides world wide. The bill does not include the human experimentation which occurred on unwitting and misinformed victims nor does it suggest studying possible birth defects.
In the past, when such stories have become public, the first automatic reaction of government and politicians is to hold hearings and do studies which become nothing more than delaying tactics while the government finds ways to cover itself and put off dealing with it until some time in the future when most, if not all the perpetrators are long dead.
The NCI study itself is a good example. The NCI began this study in 1983 under public and congressional pressure. Nothing was heard about it until in July it was leaked and subsequently became public. Already some of the scientists involved in the study have died and can no longer be questioned.
It should also be noted that Harkin will not include this legislation for appropriations until fiscal year 1999.
After the Paul Cooper story broke in Salt Lake City in 1977 , the same reaction occurred. Paul Cooper was one of hundreds of thousands of GIs who were sent into ground zero after the detonation of atomic bombs. Paul Cooper died in Boise, Idaho in 1978 of leukemia.
This set off a storm of public reaction. People wanted to know if their cancers were caused by fallout from the Nevada tests. So the politicians held hearings and the government did studies.
One study was done in 1978 by Dr. Lynn Lyon of the University of Utah. His study showed a higher than normal incidence of childhood leukemia among residents of Southern Utah. Then in March 1979 a task force Under the Department of Health and Human Services released a report which concluded that too little is known about the effects of radiation to know which cancers could have been caused by fallout.
In January 1979 the Washington Post uncovered a report that had been with held from the public for 13 years. The title of the report "Leukemia Mortality in Southwestern Utah, 1950 - 1964" was produced by Dr. Edward S. Weiss of the U.S. Public Health Service.
The reaction when this report was released was much the same as with the release of the NCI report. Utah Gov. Scott Matheson said, "What we want is the full truth and now we'll find out how cooperative the federal government intends to be in helping us to get it." Rep. Dan Marriott R-Utah said, "I am shocked that the government would ignore these findings."
Twenty years later the truth is still being leaked out, little by little. At best Harkin's bill will produce an objective study that will give us an accurate casualty count. What it will not do is relieve the suffering nor will it cure the radiation induced cancers which afflict so many world wide.
For more information:
Monte Bright
Downwinders, Inc.
P.O. Box 111
Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
hermit@downwinders.org