A fallout over eligibility

A new study released Tuesday concludes that many Utahns who may have contracted cancer from Nevada Test Site fallout live in locations that are ineligible for federal compensation.

The study released by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, was compiled by House of Representatives investigators who used 1973-2001 cancer-rate data supplied by the National Cancer Institute.

Matheson said the study may be an argument for expanding federal compensation so more Utahns affected by the radiation can receive payments that his office said usually equal $50,000. But Matheson wants to examine further reports before acting.

Under the federal fallout compensation law, only residents of 10 southern Utah counties — Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington and Wayne — are eligible for the payments. To qualify for payments under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), they must have contracted any of 18 types of cancer tied to radiation exposure.

But fallout spread far beyond those 10 counties.

"There clearly are counties outside the RECA counties with higher rates of cancer," Matheson told the Deseret Morning News in a telephone interview.

A map of radiation-related cancer rates, part of the 10-page report, bears that out. Washington, Kane and Piute counties, which line up to the northeast of the Nevada Test Site, had rates of radiation-related cancer that were in the highest category, between 208 and 247 cases per 100,000 residents. But also in that category were Tooele, Weber, Morgan, Salt Lake, Wasatch, Carbon and Grand counties.

In fact, Utah counties with the highest levels of radiation-associated cancers were Tooele, with 243.6 cases per 100,000 residents; Grand, 238.2; and Salt Lake, 223.8. None is within the compensation boundaries.

When RECA was passed, Matheson said, "there was less scientific data out there" about which areas had heavy fallout exposure.

Fallout blew away from the Test Site during almost 100 open-air tests from 1951 to 1962. Some underground tests also vented radiation.

Most of the 19 Utah counties outside the compensation boundaries had higher rates than three in the south that are in the RECA area: Millard, Wayne and San Juan (all in the category with the lowest rate, 136-177 per 100,000 residents).

Several variables may be involved to explain the differences.

• "This (mapping) is based on where the cancer was reported," Matheson said.

  People may have come down with cancer after moving away from wherever they lived at the time they were exposed to fallout.

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