At least 15,000 U.S. deaths from cancer since 1951 probably resulted from fallout that was spread over the country through aboveground nuclear weapon testing, according to data from an unreleased federal study, USA Today reported today.

According to the study, radioactive fallout spread over most of the United States from aboveground nuclear weapon tests conducted by the former Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom on several Pacific islands and at the Nevada Test Site.  No U.S. resident born after 1951 has escaped exposure to radiation, the study said.

About 22,000 cases of cancer were probably caused by external exposure to fallout, the study concluded.  Thousands of other cancer cases were likely caused by internal radiation exposure, such as that from eating tainted food, the study found.

Heavy amounts of fallout were discovered in Iowa, Tennessee, California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, according to the study.  Fallout from aboveground nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site primarily was dispersed over mountain and Midwest states.

Click here to see a map illustrating the level of fallout by U.S. county.

The study’s estimates on the spread of radioactive fallout are based on computer analyses of factors such as weather patterns, population trends and other data, according to USA Today.

Nuclear weapon countries “owe the world a real accounting of what they did to its health,” said Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.  “The U.S. has been the only honest country so far” (Peter Eisler, USA Today, Feb. 28).

In U.S. counties with the highest level of fallout, radiation exposure was equal to a person receiving one chest X-ray per year of residency since 1951, with the exposure level diminishing after 1963, the study found.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute conducted the study, which cost $1.8 million and took two years to complete, according to USA Today.  The Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the two agencies, has delayed the release of the study since last summer because of “internal reviews.”

Some members of Congress, however, have demanded the study’s public release.

“Some federal government bureaucrat has been holding onto this information for the past months and years,” said Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).  “No more stalling … We need to fully assess the threats posed by the radioactive (fallout).”

The fallout still poses some risk because isotopes can still be radioactive many years later, said Seth Tuler, a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Energy-Related Epidemiological Research.

“From a public health perspective, it’s important to identify where these contaminants fell,” Tuler said.  “It allows people to take steps to limit their risks.  If they think they might have a problem or if they’re worried, they can ask their doctors.”

There is also a need for a follow-up study, especially one that could help researchers better predict the risks posed by fallout exposure, scientists said.

“It’s important,” said David Rush, a professor at Tufts University.  “God didn’t make this problem.  We did” (Peter Eisler, USA Today II, Feb. 28).

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