The Assessment of Radiation Exposures in Native American Communities from Nuclear Weapons Testing in Nevada

• Published in: Risk analysis Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 101 - 112
• Main Authors: Frohmberg, Eric, Goble, Robert, Sanchez, Virginia, Quigley, Dianne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishers Inc 01.02.2000
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; AMERICAN INDIANS; Animals; Cattle; Child, Preschool; Diet; dose reconstruction; Environmental Exposure; Feasibility Studies; Food Contamination; Government Agencies; Housing; Humans; Indians, North American; Infant; IODINE ISOTOPES; Iodine Radioisotopes - adverse effects; Life Style; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; Meat; MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; Milk; Native American; Nevada; NEVADA TEST SITE; nuclear testing; Nuclear Warfare; Nuclear Weapons; Rabbits; Radiation; Radiation Dosage; RADIATION DOSES; RADIATION HAZARDS; RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY; Radioactive Fallout - adverse effects; Risk Assessment; Thyroid Gland - radiation effects; Toxic Substances; Vegetables; Nevada
• DOI: 10.1111/0272-4332.00010
• ISSN: 0272-4332

Native Americans residing in a broad region downwind from the Nevada Test Site during the 1950s and 1960s received significant radiation exposures from nuclear weapons testing. Because of differences in diet, activities, and housing, their radiation exposures are only very imperfectly represented in the Department of Energy dose reconstructions. There are important missing pathways, including exposures to radioactive iodine from eating small game. The dose reconstruction model assumptions about cattle feeding practices across a year are unlikely to apply to the native communities as are other model assumptions about diet. Thus exposures from drinking milk and eating vegetables have not yet been properly estimated for these communities. Through consultations with members of the affected communities, these deficiencies could be corrected and the dose reconstruction extended to Native Americans. An illustration of the feasibility of extending the dose reconstruction is provided by a sample calculation to estimate radiation exposures to the thyroid from eating radio‐iodine‐contaminated rabbit thyroids after the Sedan test. The illustration is continued with a discussion of how the calculation results may be used to make estimates for other tests and other locations.