For immediate release: April 29, 2005
Contacts: Mary Dickson, 801 232-3471
Preston Truman, 208 766-5649
Valerie Brown, 503 851-7599
DOWNWINDERS QUESTION NAS REPORT
A report by the National Academy of Sciences making recommendations to Congress regarding federal compensation for citizens harmed by radioactive fallout from nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) has raised questions and concerns among downwinders.
The 387-page report, issued Thursday, recommends that Congress make significant changes to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). RECA currently compensates downwinders in only 21 rural counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona who suffer from leukemia, lymphoma or any of 18 kinds of cancers. Most important, the NAS report acknowledges that every county in the U.S. received some fallout from nuclear testing; that some areas not eligible under RECA were exposed to higher amounts of fallout than RECA-covered counties; and that eligibility should not be limited to current geographic boundaries.
The report further recommends that Congress rely on scientific evidence to set new eligibility requirements for compensation. However, the only U.S. study of downwinder effects from NTS fallout focused exclusively on radioactive iodine (I-131) and thyroid disease. The health consequences of exposure to other nuclear bomb products, such as cesium 137 and strontium 90, have not been well-characterized, although RECA presumes that such radionuclides are responsible for the other covered diseases.
A National Cancer Institute I-131 study clearly shows that as many as 212,000 lifetime cases of thyroid cancer could have been caused by fallout exposure. For the majority of cancers currently compensated under RECA, however, such studies have not been made. The NAS report claims that in the case of most other forms of cancer “it is unlikely that exposure to radioactive fallout was a substantial contributing cause of cancer.†So, while thyroid cancer downwinders across the country could be compensated if Congress enacts the NAS recommendations, the report minimizes the effects of other radionuclides and excludes downwinders with diseases not currently covered by RECA, despite a high incidence of many cancers among downwinders.
"The report is definitely a mixed bag that raises more questions than it answers," says Salt Lake City thyroid cancer survivor Mary Dickson. "While it has the potential of being good news for Americans with thyroid cancer, justice will not be served until all downwinders are equally compensated. The report is most significant in its acknowledgement that fallout affected all U.S. counties, but it recommends hard scientific evidence in order to compensate. Unfortunately, such evidence does not exist for the majority of fallout-related cancers because studies were never conducted, nor is it likely they will ever be funded. At this point, all the government has to do is wait for the evidence to die."
After reading about the report, thyroid cancer survivor Sylvia Gardener of Vernal, Utah said, "I doubt I'll ever live to see it [compensation]."
Preston Truman, who has helped hundreds of people file RECA claims as the President of Downwinders, says he is not surprised by the report, but is very skeptical of it. "They're passing the radioactive buck to Congress," he says. "It's so easy to say we need more studies. More studies mean more delays. It's going to take years. By the time we get compensation, more people die."
Truman points to the irony of the timing of the NAS report announcement. The report was issued on the same day that the Bush administration is pushing for studies of new nuclear weapons called Bunker Busters and a day after the release of a National Research Council report concluding that the Bunker Busters would not be effective and would expose possibly millions of people to radiation. "Part of justice is acknowledging past mistakes and never letting them happen again," Truman says.
Downwinders say the NAS report is ambiguous as to whether recommended changes would be grandfathered into the current RECA program or whether RECA will be replaced. It's also unclear what Congress will do with the recommendations and who may be championing them through the system.
"It's very frustrating," says Emmett, Idaho downwinder Tona Henderson. "Maybe this will be something, but we have to fight so hard for anything we get. We've seen what the government can do to us, now we'll see what they can do for us."
Idaho writer and downwinder Valerie Brown noted the report's heavy focus on screening. "I think screening should definitely be available for all downwinders, along with full diagnosis, treatment and followup care for anyone with a RECA-compensable disease," she says. "However, those of us who have already been diagnosed with a RECA-compensable disease and can show residence in a fallout area during the relevant period should not be forced to jump through any hoops. The government should simply apologize and write out the checks. For downwinders who have not yet been diagnosed with RECA-compensable diseases, screening, treatment and compensation should be available. For downwinders whose diseases are not covered by RECA, more study may be necessary."
Brown emphasizes that further studies should be conducted by researchers independent of the Department of Energy, which has had either direct or indirect control over nearly all radiation health effects research in the U.S. "This is a conflict of interest since the DOE is the entity responsible for creating most of the radiation in the first place," Brown says.
She says new studies must also address the problem of statistical significance in low-population regions such as Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, the very states most affected by NTS fallout. Since epidemiological studies require large populations to reveal associations between disease and external factors, research on downwinder populations is often inconclusive because of low numbers. "The government should not be allowed to shrug its shoulders and hide behind structural defects in research design," Brown says. "It should devise studies that capture real-world situations."
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