Date

Nov 1, 2010

Description

Beginning in 1999, the Center for Disease Control began supporting a detailed study to “identify all available information concerning past releases of radionuclides and chemicals from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.” Based on wide access to a number of archives, the final report, published in 2010, covered a variety of public exposure issues associated with activities at Los Alamos, from plutonium reprocessing and beryllium use to hot cell activities and reactor operations. A major chapter looked closely at the Trinity Test and its “potential doses to members of the public.” As Brodie observed, “For the first time, a publicly available government report provided explanations, tables, and maps of the post-test radiation.” One particularly shocking finding was that radioactive exposure rates in public areas” near the test site “measured at levels 10,000 times higher than currently allowed.”[25]

Despite the data provided on post-test radiation, the report did not draw conclusions about adverse health impacts. According to the report, “Studies of public exposure had been incomplete because they had not “reflected the internal doses received by residents [near the Trinity test] from intakes of airborne radioactivity and contaminated water and food.” Thus, “too much remains undetermined about exposures from the Trinity test to put the event in perspective as a source of public radiation exposure or to defensibly address the extent to which people were harmed” (10-50). A recent study by NCI and DOE researchers attempts to fill the gap by estimating numbers of excess cancers [See endnote 6].

Source

CDC Website

Document published in following posting(s):

The First Atomic Explosion, 16 July 1945

Jul 16, 2024

Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Radiation Studies Branch, Final Report Los Alamos Historical Retrieval and Assessment (LAHDRA) Project, November 2010