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Dead reckoning. A critical review of the DOE's epidemiologic research (1992)

Author	H.J.Geiger, D.Rush
Date	1992
Classification	6.01.4.70/75 (RADIATION - CONSEQUENCES - OTHER)
Front

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A Critical Review of the Department of Energy's Epidemiologic Research

THE U.S. NUCLEAR weapons industry is now approaching its 50th year-a
half-century of experience that has cumulatively involved more than a half-million
workers. In the years since the Manhattan Project began, some nuclear weapons
workers have been exposed to internal and/ or external ionizing radiation in doses
that are high by any standard. Much larger numbers of these workers have been
exposed to low-dose, low-rate external and/ or internal ionizing radiation. During
those years there were also numerous releases of radioactive and other toxic
materials-some accidental, some deliberate-into the air, soil and groundwater
of unsuspecting populations living near the nuclear weapons research, production
and testing sites. The profound environmental contamination created by the nuclear
weapons complex, revealed only within the last few years, after decades of official
denial, has become a national scandal.
Yet today there is far less knowledge of the health risks to workers, and far less
certainty in the estimates of risk that do exist, than might have been expected
from this vast body of experience. There is evidence of environmental contamination
at most, if not all, nuclear weapons sites. But even less is known about the impact
of weapons complex contamination on the health of surrounding communities. The
protection of workers and the public, as well as scientific understanding of the
biological effects of low-dose ionizing radiation, has therefore suffered
immeasurably.

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