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Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation: - Clark University

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5<br />

Nuclear Weapons Testing<br />

Over 500 nuclear weapons have been detonated<br />

above-ground since 1945 at test sites in Kazakhstan,<br />

Russia, the United States, and the South Pacific.<br />

Other tests have been conducted underground.<br />

Figure 5-1 shows nuclear test sites around the world.<br />

Some <strong>of</strong> the radioactive fallout that was generated<br />

was deposited locally, and some <strong>of</strong> it was dispersed<br />

around the globe after entering the upper atmosphere.<br />

Adverse health effects, mainly leukemia and thyroid<br />

disease, have been observed in military personnel<br />

participating in nuclear tests and in people living<br />

downwind <strong>of</strong> the test sites. This section reviews<br />

what we know about these exposures and effects.<br />

5.1 Military personnel<br />

Several cohorts <strong>of</strong> participants in U.S. and British<br />

tests have been studied. Dose estimates were<br />

provided for three <strong>of</strong> these cohorts and average<br />

doses were less than 5 mSv in all cases. Knox et<br />

al. (1983a, 1983b) assessed cancers, particularly<br />

blood and lymph cancers 1 , in British servicemen<br />

involved in nuclear tests in 1957 and 1958. After<br />

calculating the expected number <strong>of</strong> these cancers<br />

based on servicemen from the same period who<br />

were not involved in the tests, the authors began<br />

collecting cases <strong>of</strong> cancer in test veterans. With only<br />

a fraction <strong>of</strong> the veterans responding to requests for<br />

information it was clear that there was an excess<br />

Figure 5-1. A map showing the approximate locations <strong>of</strong> worldwide nuclear bomb test sites (www.atomicarchive.com/<br />

Almanac/Testing.shtml).<br />

1 Knox et al. looked at leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma, and polycythemia vera, lumping the cancers as<br />

reticuloendothelial (RES) neoplasms. Classifications are different today.<br />

58

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