FEATURE ARTICLE
Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks
Exposures 50 years ago still have health implications today that will continue into the future
Steven Simon, André Bouville, Charles Land
Prior to 1950, only limited consideration was given to the health
impacts of worldwide dispersion of radioactivity from nuclear
testing. But in the following decade, humanity began to
significantly change the global radiation environment by testing
nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. By the early 1960s, there was no
place on Earth where the signature of atmospheric nuclear testing
could not be found in soil, water and even polar ice.
Cancer investigators who specialize in radiation effects have, over
the intervening decades, looked for another signature of nuclear
testing—an increase in cancer rates. And although it is
difficult to detect such a signal amid the large number of cancers
arising from "natural" or "unknown" causes, we
and others have found both direct and indirect evidence that
radioactive debris dispersed in the atmosphere from testing has
adversely affected public health. Frequently, however, there is
misunderstanding about the type and magnitude of those effects. Thus
today, with heightened fears about the possibilities of nuclear
terrorism, it is worthwhile to review what we know about exposure to
fallout and its associated cancer risks.
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