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A US study has found that the number of cancers caused by hydrogen bomb testing
in the Marshall Islands is set to double, more than half a century after the tests
were conducted in the tiny Pacific nation.
The study by the US government's National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimated 530
cancers had already been caused by the tests, particularly the explosion of a
15 megaton hydrogen bomb code-named Bravo on March 1, 1954.
It said another 500 cancers were likely to develop among Marshall Islanders
who were exposed to radiation more than 50 years ago.
"We estimate that the nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands
will cause about 500 additional cancer cases among Marshallese exposed during
the years 1946-1958, about a nine percent increase over the number of cancers
expected in the absence of exposure to regional fallout," the NCI study
said.
The study said because of the young age of the population when exposed in the
1950s, more than 55 percent of cancers have yet to develop or be diagnosed.
The NCI completed the study in September last year but it was only publicly
released last week after officials from the Marshall Islands noticed a reference
to it in a US Congressional report and requested a copy.
It was prepared for the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
which is scheduled to launch hearings next month to review a petition from the
Marshall Islands seeking more than US$3 billion in additional compensation for
nuclear test damages and health care.
At the time of the Bravo test at Bikini Atoll, US officials played down the
health implications for islanders.
Bikini Islanders were not evacuated despite their land's being engulfed in
snow-like radioactive fallout for two-to-three days after the Bravo bomb, which
was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.
Although many islanders developed severe radiation burns and had their hair
fall out as their land was engulfed in fallout, US Atomic Energy Commission
authorities issued a statement following the test saying "there were no
burns" and the islanders were in good health.
US officials later allowed islanders to return home to live in radioactive
environments without performing any cleanup work on their islands.
The US paid US$270 million in a compensation package in the mid-1980s part
of which went to the Majuro-based Nuclear Claims Tribunal.
But the tribunal says only a limited amount was made available for payouts
and has described the original settlement as "manifestly inadequate."
