Report Recommends New Criteria for Radiation Exposure Compensation Program
Question of Radiation Exposure in Guam Receives Special Consideration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 28, 2005 – Washington, D.C. – In March of 2004, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo spoke before the Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program to request that they include an assessment of Guam for “downwinders” and ship decontamination as part of their congressionally mandated study. Today, the Committee released its report, Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure and Education Program, which includes an entire appendix on the question of radiation exposure in Guam. The Committee recommends that Congress should establish new scientific criteria for decisions about awarding federal compensation to people who developed certain cancers or other specific diseases as a result of exposure to radioactive fallout from U.S. nuclear weapons tests, and that the new approach should consider people in all parts of the United States – including Guam. It also finds that while Guam did receive nuclear fallout from U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, this exposure to radioactive debris has not constituted a significant health risk to the people of Guam.

“The Committee has recommended that all Americans be given the same consideration when it comes to compensation for exposure to radiation from U.S. nuclear testing – including the people of Guam. This is a significant departure from the current compensation program, which uses geographic, rather than scientific, criteria. I support the Committee’s recommendation to include the residents of Guam in a revised compensation program that uses a science-based risk assessment as the basis for eligibility under RECA,” Bordallo said.

Bordallo added, “The Committee gave special attention in its report to the concerns I and others raised about radiation exposure in Guam from nuclear fallout and ship decontamination. The Committee found that the scientific evidence suggests that U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific has not had a significant impact on the cancer rate of the people of Guam, which, it noted, is actually lower that the United States as a whole.”

The conclusions of the Committee directly address many of the concerns that have been raised in Guam and across the nation from people, commonly known as “downwinders,” who were exposed to radioactive fallout from U.S. nuclear testing: “One concern about the RECA program expressed by many downwinders… was that their counties or their cancers were not eligible for compensation. The committee discussed such equity issues extensively and concluded that, to be equitable, any compensation program has to be based to a large extent on scientific criteria. The use of scientific criteria is of particular importance because ionizing radiation is not a potent cancer-causing agent, and the risks for radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concerns in RECA populations. For example, the number of cancers observed in the 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 the downwinders. Thus, eligibility for compensation needs to be scientifically assessed.”

The conclusions continued: “Accordingly, the committee was particularly attentive to the downwinders’ complaints about their ineligibility with respect to RECA. It examined the epidemiologic, radiobiologic, and dosimetric information relevant to downwinders’ concerns. The scientific evidence indicates that in most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radiation from fallout was a substantial contributing cause to developing cancer. Moreover, scientifically based changes that Congress may make in the eligibility criteria for compensation in response to this report are likely to result in few successful claims. The committee is aware that such conclusions will be disappointing, but they have been reached in accordance with the committee’s charge to base its conclusions on the results of best available scientific information.”

In response to the concerns raised by Congresswoman Bordallo and others, the Committee devoted an entire appendix to the issue of nuclear fallout exposure and ship decontamination in Guam. By examining data collected from 1954-1958, the report concludes that “Guam did receive radioactive debris from fallout during the nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean. The analysis demonstrates that fallout in Guam during that period was similar to that in other parts of the U.S. and its territories.” The Committee’s report also cites a study from an extensive radiologic monitoring program that was conducted in Micronesia, including Guam, to conclude that, “the data did not indicate that the concentrations of fission-product radioactivity in samples of soil or biota in Guam were greater than the concentration of naturally occurring radionuclides.” In response to Resolution No. 30 of the 27th Guam Legislature, which raised the concern that radiation exposure may have had adverse affects on health in Guam, the Committee’s report found that “the incidence of cancer is not higher in Guam than in the entire United States.” The Committee’s report also addresses the decontamination of ships in Guam, stating “no data indicated that radioactive materials affected sea life or entered the food chain of residents of Guam.” In its summary, the Committee’s report cites a review conducted by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which concluded, “the estimated annual effective does from residual fallout on Guam due to nuclear-weapons tests was only a small fraction of the dose that residents receive from natural sources of radiation.”

The Committee’s report was sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provides science and technology advice under a congressional charter. Additional information on the Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program may be found at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/brer/1HRSAHOME.html.

More information on radiation exposure in Guam, including the Committee’s report, today’s press release from the National Academies of Science, a frequently asked questions page, Congresswoman Bordallo’s testimony before the Committee, the findings of the 26th Guam Legislature’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Radioactive Contamination in Guam, the Lawerence Livermore Laboratory Hamilton Report, a response from the U.S. Department of Justice addressing decontamination of Navy craft in Guam, and more will be available later today at: http://www.house.gov/bordallo/reig.html.

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Contact: Neil Weare in Washington, D.C., at (202) 225-1188 or Joaquin Perez in Guam at (671) 477-4272