Few would be compensated if fallout advice is followed

Without calling for an end to the present system of radiation fallout compensation, a new blue-ribbon study says a future method should be both more broadly applied and less geographically specific — as well as more scientifically restrictive.

Radiation actually is not a particularly potent cancer-causer, according to the report released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences. And if based more on scientific principles, new compensation standards would likely "result in few successful claims."

The 372-page report, "Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program," recommends widening the pool of potential claimants throughout the nation and to include people in uranium-related jobs and professions not currently covered by the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Even then, the risks "for radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concern" in those populations addressed by the act, the study says.

The report immediately drew both criticism and support.

"I am frequently approached by constituents who believe that they should be eligible for RECA but who are not," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a written statement. "It is impossible for Congress to evaluate those requests without a solid scientific analysis, which is what the NAS report was intended to provide."

However, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is concerned the recommendations may not address health issues facing Utah's downwinders. "I'm worried that moving away from geography as a basis for expanding RECA may result in thousands of downwinders falling through the cracks."

The report's executive summary says that the number of cancers observed in Japanese atomic bomb survivors that are attributable to radiation "is relatively small, even though many in this population received doses much higher than doses received by most of downwinders."

RECA, passed in 1990, allows compensation for people with diseases tied to radiation who lived in certain counties downwind from the Nevada Test Site. These are Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne counties, Utah; five entire counties and part of another in Nevada; and five Arizona counties plus the section of that state between the Utah border and the Grand Canyon.

Also, workers at the Nevada Test Site are covered. In 2000, Congress extended coverage to uranium workers.

Compensation for those who qualify is $100,000 for those exposed in the weapons-related uranium mining industry, $75,000 for on-site workers and $50,000 for downwinders.