A new study from the National Cancer Institute reports that 90 above-ground atomic bomb tests in the 1950's exposed millions of American children to radioactive iodine, a component of fallout that, under certain circumstances, may affect the thyroid gland.
Yeah.... and? The big deal is....?
In the 100,000-page study, the NCI admitted it could not say whether any cases of thyroid cancer were caused by the fallout. In fact, studies of people immediately downwind from the test site did not even find a statistical association (let alone cause-and-effect) with thyroid cancer.
And this absence of observed health effects occurred despite the releases being 10 times larger than those caused by the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.
So why no health effects despite such "large" exposures?
Our fear of radiation is largely based on mindless extrapolation of cancer risk from Japanese atomic bomb blast survivors who received massive doses of radiation almost instantaneously. Lower levels of radiation over longer periods of time have yet to be linked credibly with increased cancer risk.
So the NCI report is a big Y-A-W-N. Wake me when I glow in the dark.
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