Two Thyroid Cancer Victims Win $500,000 (Hanford Downwinders)

[chlamor]

Two Thyroid Cancer Victims Win $500,000


Friday May 20, 2005 2:46 AM

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

Associated Press Writer

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A federal jury awarded more than $500,000 Thursday to two thyroid cancer victims who blamed their disease on radiation from the government's Hanford nuclear installation, which made plutonium for bombs for four decades.

The jury deadlocked over whether another plaintiff's thyroid cancer was caused by Hanford radiation, and it ruled against three others with thyroid-related autoimmune diseases.

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The cases are largely based on the release of iodine-131, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear weapons production. Iodine-131 concentrates in the thyroid gland, which regulates the body's metabolism.

<snip>

After documents were declassified in 1986, the government spent $27 million to reconstruct the radiation dose people downwind from Hanford would have received, and concluded that the exposures were substantial and chronic. However, a later 13-year, $19.5 million study found no conclusive link between Hanford releases and thyroid diseases.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5018468,00.html

[struggle4progress]

1. kick for the many reasons info is "classified"

[burrowowl]

2. Compare anf contrast

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1488865&mesg_id=1488873