More hints of fallout danger

A newly published scientific study on radioactive fallout in the West confirms what we suspected last year — that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had no good reason for shutting down similar research.

Utahns can be a tad paranoid when it comes to the federal government and radiation exposure. But that paranoia is backed by years of betrayal and suffering. Thousands of Utahns were exposed to radiation during above-ground nuclear tests in the Nevada desert during the 1950s and '60s. And while Congress reluctantly provided compensation to many cancer victims here, it seems unusually uninterested in learning the true scope of the problem.

Last year, the CDC pulled the plug on a research project headed by Dr. Joseph L. Lyon of the University of Utah, after telling him he simply needed to hurry and get the study over with. But researchers were trying to track down 4,000 people to study the effects of radiation exposure to thyroid conditions, a process that took time.

The latest research, published in the journal Radiation Research, confirms much of Lyon's work. It also draws strong connections between radiation exposure and thyroiditis, a noncancerous inflammation.

Last year, this newspaper also quoted a researcher who told how, as a member of an advisory committee, he had once helped the CDC conduct a study that began to show links between health problems in Idaho and the Nevada Test Site. The CDC suddenly seemed to lose interest, he said. The researcher said data from the National Cancer Institute showed Idaho and Montana were hit harder by fallout than was Utah.

Why is the CDC not interested in this science? Are officials there more interested in politics or in protecting the government's reputation than in science?

This lack of interest is particularly troubling considering former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt now is Secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. A native of southern Utah, he once was quoted in this newspaper about how his grandmother used to hang wash to dry outside her Bunkerville, Nev., home while pink clouds swirled overhead. He could point to family members who died from cancer he believed was caused by the tests.

With scientific evidence accumulating, the federal government owes it to all Americans to fund thorough and comprehensive research that explains exactly what were the harmful effects of its nuclear testing program.