National Cancer Institute Agrees To Leahy’s Request To Answer Vermonters’ Questions About Atomic Testing Fallout

October 2, 1997

At the request of Sen. Patrick Leahy, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will answer Vermonters’ questions about fallout exposure to the state during the above-ground atomic tests of the 1950s and 1960s.

An NCI report, including a map showing county-by-county estimates of average radiation doses to the thyroid of persons living during the period when the tests were conducted in Nevada, shows especially high exposures at that time in Vermont. Those high levels in Vermont were due in part, NCI researchers say, to relatively greater dependence in that period of many families in the state on milk from their own dairy cows, which had ingested radiation while feeding in open fields.

NCI estimates that the radioactive iodine, I-131, spewed into the atmosphere in the 90 above-ground bomb tests means that 10,000 to 75,000 Americans may develop thyroid cancer in their lifetimes. Air currents carried the fallout as far as the East Coast, including Vermont.

NCI officials note that the exposures were decades ago and that there is no ongoing exposure danger today, from milk or otherwise. Thyroid cancer remains rare in the United States and is one of the most readily treated cancers.

The chart and other information from the preliminary NCI report is available on the World Wide Web (http://www.nci.nih.gov) and can also be accessed through Leahy’s home page (http://leahy.senate.gov) on the Web.

"The exposure Vermonters received concerns me, and the secrecy of federal agencies in handling this data makes it even worse," said Leahy. "This was a shameful episode that showed appalling treatment of citizens by their government. It must never be repeated. The federal government now must make every effort to handle this responsibly and honestly, and that includes answering the public’s questions about this exposure and about the risks of thyroid cancer. Vermonters deserve to know all that their government knows."

Leahy joined Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in faulting federal agencies for not acting during the testing period to warn the public of the fallout exposure. Harkin has discovered evidence that the Atomic Energy Commission, responding to complaints from the Eastman Kodak Company in 1951 that radioactivity was harming its photographic film, agreed to give Kodak and other firms maps and forecasts of potential contamination so they could buy supplies from low-radiation areas. Milk producers and consumers, however, were not told.

From Oct. 2 through Oct. 15, Leahy will collect questions from Vermonters by mail, phone and e-mail, send them to NCI for answers, and publish them on his home page, beginning Oct. 29 -- the deadline he has given NCI to respond. He will also provide printed copies of the questions and answers to Vermonters on request, after Oct. 29.

Read the Questions & Answers by clicking here.