The anti-nuclear Institute for Energy and Environment Research claims that the federal government failed to track properly the radiation exposure of thousands of nuclear weapons workers.
According to the Institute, until the 1980's, the government only tracked radiation doses from sources outside the human body, usually by requiring workers to wear badges that measured radiation exposure. Although the government also took urine samples to look for signs that employees had swallowed or inhaled radioactive materials, the measurements of intake and ingestion were not combined with external doses to calculate a total exposure.
According to Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute, "large numbers of workers have received information which systematically understates their actual exposures."
Perhaps. But this report doesn't help Makhijani's anti-nuclear mission.
Since nuclear weapons workers have never been shown to have higher rates of health problems stemming from their exposures to radiation, this report only strengthens the case that low-level and occupational radiation exposures are safe.
These workers had even higher levels of exposure than previously thought and still they had no health effects linked to radiation exposure.
If anything, this report is only more glow-in-the-dark evidence of our federal government's ineptitude.
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