The cumulative releases of iodine-131 were enormous, amounting to about 130 million curies. This is approximately ten times the amount released from the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst nuclear power plant disaster. (See attached iodine-131 fact sheet for further explanation.)

"It is especially tragic that children suffered large thyroid doses during the 1951-57 period because most of the fallout could have been avoided," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), an independent research institute in Takoma Park, Maryland. "US authorities located the test site in Nevada despite knowledge that prevailing westerly winds would blow fallout over most of the country." Official documents indicate that choice of a site between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear in North Carolina would have blown most of the fallout over the Atlantic Ocean. (Quotations from official documents are appended to this press release.)

Cumulative thyroid doses to the population of the United States exposed during the 1950s are estimated by the National Cancer Institute to be about 400 million rad, with most of the dose going to children. IEER estimates that this level of population dose could cause tens of thousands of additional cases of thyroid cancer, primarily among children who were exposed during the time of the atmospheric testing. About five to ten percent of these thyroid cancers would be expected to be fatal. A recent study by Elaine Ron et al. (Radiation Research, vol. 141, pp. 259-277, 1995) concludes that there is "convincing evidence" of increased thyroid cancer risk to children under 15 years whose thyroids are exposed to 10 rad or more.

Additional cases would also occur in parts of Canada among children who were highly exposed at the time. Some people in northern Mexico also appear to have been exposed.

"It is essential that those who were children living at the time in the high fallout areas be given appropriate medical screening," said Dr. Makhijani. "They need to be notified. The National Cancer Institute can help by releasing all the detailed information that it has as soon as possible." He called for increased cooperation between the US government and the affected former Soviet states on Chernobyl fallout, as well as additional funds for the World Health Organization (WHO), which is also assessing the effects of the Chernobyl accident. "It is imperative that this research be opened up to the public of the United States, as well as to the people of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The United States should also work with the governments of Canada and Mexico to provide them with the information they need to make their own assessments," he added.

Further study will be needed to address the many uncertainties about the effects of thyroid irradiation. This study should focus especially on the hot spots to identify those most at risk. "However, the need to address uncertainties should not be occasion for delay. There is ample evidence of risk to children and medical screening should be made available to all exposed children," said Dr. Makhijani.

Since atmospheric nuclear testing has also been conducted by four other nuclear powers -- the former Soviet Union, France, Britain, and China, IEER called upon these countries to make public all their data on fallout, and in particular on iodine-131 releases. The main test sites of these countries were located as follows:

• Former Soviet Union: near Semipalatinsk (now in Kazakhstan) and in Novaya Zemlya in northern Russia
• France: Algeria and Polynesia
• Britain: Australia and Christmas Island
• China: Lop Nur

"The other four nuclear powers owe it to their own people and the people of the world to make public all data on fallout," said Dr. Makhijani. "The World Health Organization should be funded to carry out the thyroid dose assessments, which affected millions children in many countries."