Panel wants public input about report of radioactive exposure

Friday, Feb. 27, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.

The National Research Council is asking for the public's help in communicating possible health risks resulting from radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons experiments at the Nevada Test Site.

An NRC committee will meet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the St. Tropez Hotel, 455 E. Harmon Ave. The public is welcome.

The National Cancer Institute asked the council to evaluate its report released last year on iodine-131 exposure from atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and 1960s.

The tests created radioactive clouds which blanketed the country and left "hot spots" in New York, Massachusetts, Idaho, the Dakotas, Montana and New Mexico.

Exposure to iodine-131 caused thyroid cancers in some cases after the fallout spread across the nation, dropping on all 48 continental states, the NCI study concluded.

The institute said in August that fallout from the blasts probably resulted in 10,000 to 75,000 cases of thyroid cancers. While federal officials said for years that no one was exposed to dangerous levels of iodine-131, radiation was spread to children through cow and goat milk. The government warned photo experts, such as Kodak Inc., of the dangers to their products but did not warn the public, according to NCI.

The council has been asked to evaluate public health implications from the radioactive exposure, recommend a strategy for communicating health risks, and compile a list of resources for the public.

The National Research Council, the chief operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is an independent, nonprofit and non-governmental organization that provides scientific and technological advice to the academy.

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