CASE HISTORY:
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1981:Hearing Before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-seventh Congress, First Session on S. 1483 – pt.1.
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982 - 304 pages
P. 103
3. Leukemia Clusters
a. General Description
The Archive contains 69 documents dealing directly with seven leukemia case "clusters" identified between 1961 and 1972. There is sufficient cross referencing of the incidents to provide assurance that no other clusters were identified in the states proximal to the NTS, but there is no way to be sure that the Archive includes all of the relevant extant documents relating to these incidents . It is also apparent that the CDC, the Utah State Health Department, and the DRH were all involved in the investigation of these clusters from their earliest recognition. In fact, except for the first investigation (which was carried out primarily by Mr. E.S. Weiss of the Research Branch, DRH), the direction of the studies came from Dr. Clarke W. Heath, Jr., Chief, Leukemia Unit, Epidemiology Branch, CDC. Dr. Heath was assisted in the field by various Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers assigned to the Utah State Health Department .
While some of the documents (particularly "Epidemic Aid Memos, summarized the investigations) were marked "For Administrative Use Only -- Not for Publication," the Archive reveals no evidence of any overt efforts to conceal the findings from the public. The one manuscript by E.S. Weiss (9424) prepared for publication (but never submitted (10075 ] ), had sufficient technical problems to justify its being withheld for substantial revision (9746). The Archive does, however , contain a letter from Dr. Heath to an American Medical Association official (10075), dated February 22, 1971, indicating his reasons for not publishing the results of the CDC investigations.
p. 104
Essentially, these were that the findings were inconclusive and that in his opinion neither these investigations nor others carried out by CDC revealed any possibility that the clusters might be due to radioactive fallout. The Panel concurs with Dr. Heath's first conclusion, but the Archive documents cannot rule out the possibility that the clusters might have been due to radioactive fallout.
The seven clusters occurred in Washington and Iron Counties, Utah; Fredonia, Arizona; Monticello, Utah ; Parowan and Paragonah, Utah; Pleasant Grove, Utah; South Salt Lake City, Utah; and Flagstaff, Arizona. The clusters are described below, followed by a description of community surveys in three of the towns, and several miscellaneous documents.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento