Subject:
e-Nuclear Veterans News
Date:
Fri, 26 May 2000 07:36:49 -0600
e-Nuclear Veterans News
“Published periodically to send as e-mail from Albuquerque, New
Mexico to
furnish information on pending legislation and other information
of
relative mterest to Nuclear Exposed Veterans and Others.
Vol. 00, Issue 11. 2000
Visit our WEB Site at: http.//www
angelfire.com/txfatomicvderan/email2
html
We have been asked why we do not send attachments to this
Newsletter.
Some of you received the first issue which had graphics,
outlines, etc.
Several replied that could not receive e-mail attachments or
graphics (or
do not accept attachments to e-mail for several reasons). We
searched for
an acceptable answer. The way the construction is done now takes
over
twice as long to setup. We have received no complaints, so feel
it is
worth the effort. The important factor is to get the info out to
as many
as possible.
On Wednesday evening (5/17) there was an article on CNN Headline
news,
and on CBS evening news with Dan Rather on 5/18, regarding the
flyover
several Navy Ships which released a spray, “Test Substitue’ of
Anthrax
without prior notice to the “troops.” The Substitute and the
sray
received from same would not have an effect on them. Where have
we heard
this before? Now several of them have physical problems which
also are
not recognized by the Government, VA or Other. We are
researching more
info on this subject and would like to invite those persons
involved to
join our group.
How many out there have contacted your Congressional Delegation
(also,
State Governors) asking them to support July 16 as a “National
Day of
Rembrance for Atomic Veterans?” July 16 is the date of the first
Atom
Bomb Test conducted at Trinity Site, White Sands Proving
Grounds, NM.
Only you can make this happen.
AS WE PREPARE for Memorial Day Remembrance and Honor Our Fallen
Comrades,
Atomic Veterans receive another (continuing) “Slap in the Face”
as
follows:
from Albuquerque Journal 05/25/00
House To Take On Miner Reparation
*Bill would increase government payments up to $100,000 to
miners
sickened by above-ground nuclear tests
By MATT KELLEY, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - More former uranium miners and Westerners sickened
by
above-ground nuclear tests could get government payments of up
to
$100,000 each under a measure sent to the full House Wednesday.
The House Judiciary Committee endorsed a Senate-passed bill that
would
expand the list of cancers and other diseases that make former
miners or
nuclear test “downwinders” eligible for compensation under a
1990 law.
The measure also would add open pit uranium miners and uranium
mill
workers to those who can seek the payments, and adds five states
to the
list of six states where such workers are eligible.
The bill, as well as the 1990 law, provides “much-deserved
compensation
for the people who provided this country with uranium when we
needed it
most,” said Utah Republican Rep. Chris Cannon, whose district
includes
many of those eligible for compensation.
The law was meant to help Westerners who became ill because of
their
involvement in Cold War nuclear weapons production. Much of the
uranium
used in nuclear weapons was mined in the Four Corners area of
Arizona,
New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, and aboveground nuclear tests
were
detonated in New Mexico and Nevada.
Critics of the 1990 law are seeking the changes, saying the
original law
was too narrow and too many people with legitimate. ******
Picture at this point with Capitol in background and following
standing
in front of.
SEEKING AMENDS: Sarah Harvey Benally of Dolores, Cob., far
right, and
fellow Navajo uranium workers lobbied Congress in April to
increase
compensation to radiation-exposed, cancer-stricken workers. The
bill was
sent to the House on Wednesday after being passed by a House
committee
and the Senate. ******
claims are being denied. As of March 1, the Justice Department
had paid
3,302 claims worth $244 million and denied another 3,500 claims.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposed
changes would
cost $1 billion during the next two decades. ******
Insert
The bill, as well as the 1990 law, provides “much
-deservedcompensation
for the people provided this country with uranium when we needed
it
most.”
UTAH REPUBLICAN - CHRIS CANNON
******
Among other things, the bill would extend eligibility to uranium
workers
from Soth Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Texas. The law
covers
Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and
Washington
state.
Other specific changes in the bill include:
• Adding leukemia and cancers of lung, thyroid, brain, kidney,
esophagus
and stomach to the list of cancers that make miners eligible for
compensation. Kidney disease and two lung ailments also would be
added to
the the list. For downwinders - people who lived in Nevada,
Utah and
Arizona most afffected by nuclear fallout from tests - the added
cancers
include leukemia and those of the brain, bladder, colon, ovaries
and
salivary gland
• Eliminating provisions that give less money to downwinders or
miners
who ssmoked.
• Cutting the amount of time an elilble miner had to work in
uranium
mines fron age of just under 20 years to less than four years.
• Requiring the Justice Department to take :
American Indian law and custom into account when processing
applications.
Navaj~ have complained that widows of dead miners have been
denied
compensation because they were married in traditional Indian
cerimonies
and don’t have marriage certificates.
Note: The Portland Press Herald is Published in Portland, Maine.
Norway
is a Town in Maine some 35 miles north of Portland.
Forum - MAINE VOICES - Portland Press Herald, Thursday, November
6, 1997
NUCLEAR HAZARDS - Mainer's Studies Revealing
• Research on atomic veterans shows higher disease, death rates.
By ROBERT L Campbell [About the Author: Robert L. Campbell of
Norway is
director of mortality studies for the Atomic Veterans Radiation
Research
Institute]
NORWAY - Those who cast doubt on the hazards of nuclear power
and
environmental radiation unfortunately overlook data that make
debateable
the conclusion that in the scheme of things, mining coal and
drilling foi
oil are far more hazardous, and that radiation exposure may
possess
beneficial effects.
One shortcoming reprinted earlier thIs year In this newspaper is
reliance
on yet unsubstantiated findings that low.level ionizing
radiation is
somehow less harmful than large doses. That account cited
findings by the
Radiation Effects Research Foundation In Hiroshima which found
"324
excess deaths from solid-tissue cancers in excess of what would
be
expected...and a smaller number of leukemias.”
Unfortunately, Nagasaki/Hiroshima data were skewed from the
beginning.
As social scientist Sue Babbitt Roff revealed in her book “Hot
Spots,”
the American team sent to the two cities to measure radlalion
was still
1,500 miles away on the island of Tinian, when they read the
“results” of
their study in Stars and Stripes. the military newspaper!
Annette Flanagan, R. N., MS., editor of the annual radiation
Issue of
the Journal of the American Medical Association, stated that
Hiroshima/
Nagasaki data are not "generalizable.” In short, radiation
exposure data
from the August 1945 bombings cannot be used as a benchmark for
radiation
exposure.
MISSING from this entire debate is mortality data of American
and British
atomic veterans, who, according to their respective governments,
received
negligible amounts of radiation exposure.
In 1994. I published the first non-government study of the
mortalitv of
American atomic veterans (members of the military exposed to
radiation
during atom-bomb testing during the 1940s and 1950s) and found
an average
age at death -from all causes - of 58.47 years.
A year later, my study was expanded to include British veterans.
Their
average age at death, again frpm all causes, was 53.85 years! In
1995,
the Veterans Administration published its study of participants
in 1958
Pacific tests and found an average age at death of 51 years from
all
causes!
IN 1996 Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of
Sciences,
released Its study of Operation Crossroad (BikinI, 1946).
finding an
average age at death of 58. StudyIng death certificates of
clvilian
employees of the Nevada Test Site, I found an average age at
death from
all causes of 60.
The cancer death rate for American and British veterans was 75
percent
and.73.3 percent respectively. As is readily apparent, these
average
ages at death are far below the average age at death for the
general
population.
While the IOM officially recognized my 1994 report, it believed
the
cancer death rates were too high. To balance the record, my
work is an
on-going project.
The missing element In this debate is: If low-level radiation Is
not
harmful. then why, as three independent studies conclusively
find, are
so many men dying prematurely?
The authors of the VA study noted in their abstract that “Most
of the
cancers. suspected of being radio-genic were not significantly
elevated
among the test participants. Nevertheless, increased risks for
certain
cancers cannot be ruled out.” Key here is "not significantly
elevated."
The conclusion then is that certain cancers were elevated. IOM
officials
similarly reported that the dealths of Crossroads participants
from
cancer and Leukemia were "slightIy higher while "... not
statistically
significant." These statements raise signicant questions which
have yet
to be answered.
The IOM also reported that more than half of the Crossroads
participants
are now deceased and that they will destroy the death
certifificates in
their possession in 1998. The IOM study did not compare their
death
certificates with ships’ rosters to determine whether there was
a high
cancer/leukemia cohort for crews of any particular vessel. The
loss of
this data is Incalculable and has a direct bearing on the
effects of
low-level ionizing radiation.
With attention now being focused on fallout from the Nevada Test
Site, it
Is a matter of record that Chicago received measurable amounts
of beta
radiation from Shot Dog, an 81-kiloton device detonated as part
of
Operation Greenhouse at Eniwetok Atoll In 1951. While the
charge of the
National Cancer Institute was to investigate only the Incidence
of
thyroid cancer, the fact nonetheless remains that radioactive
fallout is
not limited merely to iodine-131.
Other radioactive elements incident to radiation exposure
include
ptutonium’239, -plutonium-239, cesium-137, strontium-90,
cobalt-60,
uranium-238 and other lesser-known elements, all of which have
the
potential to cause fatal harm if Inhaled or ingested.
A CRITICAL aspect of fallout is the size of radioactive
particles. Are
they small enough to be lnhaled/ingested without knoowing? In
1995,
researchers found a 16 percent increase in adult cancers and a
32 percent
Increase In childhood cancers, but failed to find a specific
cause.
The American public deserves unbiased answers to the question
of
radiation exposure. However, it is doubtul this will occur as
long as
meaningful data are withheld and the media continue to accept
government
and pro-nuclear press releases without question.
- Special to the Press Herald
e-Nuclear Veterans News is NOT affiliated with any organization
and sent
Free via e-mail.
Eligible: Atomic Veterans, Gulf War (Depleted Uranium), Others
Nuclear
Exposed. To be placed on our list please furnish:
Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Telephone Number, e-mail
Address.
Send above information via e-mail to: rucon@juno.com. If you do
not
desire to receive copies please notify us.
Information gathered by Dick Conant, 2424 Venetian Way SW,
Albuquerque,
NM 87105, Tp: 505-877-3707 & Dale Howard, Tp: 505-865-8138, to
assist
Nuclear Exposed Veterans.
Thank you,
Dick Conant (Richard U. Conant, Tp: 505-877-3707, FAX:
505-877-2119.
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