Revision 1
March 19, 1998
by Radiation, Science, and Health, Inc.,
Edited by J. Muckerheide

1.2.5
Weapons and Facility Releases

1.2.5.1
Military Observers

U. S Weapons Tests

British Weapons Test

Canadian Studies

Cancer Among Participants in Nuclear Weapons Tests

U. S. Weapons Tests

"In 1980, Caldwell et al. (1980) reported that among the 3,224 participants of the nuclear test explosion Smoky, nine cases of leukemia occurred through 1977, compared with 3.5 expected cases. In a later report (Caldwell 1983), the number of cases of leukemia increased to 10/4.0 and data were provided on cancer at other sites through 1979. The total number of observed cases of cancer was 112, compared with 117.5 expected; there was a significant increase only in leukemia incidence and mortality. In 1984, four cases of polycythemia vera were observed, compared with 0.2 expected (Caldwell 1984). Robinette et al. (1985) expanded the study to include a cohort of 46,186 participants in one or more of five test series at the NTS or the Pacific Proving Ground (PPG). The excess cases of leukemia among the participants of the Smoky test were confirmed, but only 46 deaths from leukemia were observed in the participants of the other PPG tests, compared with 52.4 expected deaths. No one series showed a significant excess of leukemia, and there was also no consistent excess for any other cancer site.

British Weapons Test

"Darby et al. (1988) described a cohort study of 22,347 British participants in nuclear weapons tests and related experimental programs in Australia and the Pacific Ocean and 22,325 matched controls. For all causes of death RR = 1.01; for all cancers RR = 0.96. Leukemias and multiple myeloma occurred significantly more often in participants than controls; 22 versus 6 cases and 6 versus 0 cases, respectively. However, for participants at both test sites, the death rates were only slightly higher in participants than expected, based on national rates (SMR = 113 and 111 respectively), while the death rates were much lower than expected in the controls (SMR = 32 and 0, respectively). There was no association with the type or degree of radiation exposure.

Canadian Studies

"Raman et al. (1987) carried out a cohort study of 954 Canadian military personnel who had been involved in clean-up operations after nuclear reactor accidents at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories or who had observed nuclear weapons blasts in the United States or Australia; two matched controls were selected from military records for each exposed subject. No differences in cause-specific mortality between cases and controls and no trends by degree of exposure were found; the study size was small and only very large differences would have been detectable."