Atomic Victims?

Fallout from an old report

Kenneth Lamoreaux grew up on his family's farm in the southwestern Utah town of Paragonah. One day in 1960, at age 15, he was diagnosed as having acute lymphatic leukemia. Ten days later he was dead. A cousin died of leukemia in 1963, another has suffered from thyroid cancer. One common denominator: proximity to more than 80 above-ground atomic-bomb tests held at the nearby Nevada proving grounds from 1951 to 1962.

The Government has long denied the claims of area families that fallout from the testing posed a health hazard. Last week the residents' case was bolstered by a previously unpublished piece of evidence: a 1965 U.S. Public Health Service report on two southwestern Utah counties indicating that from 1950 to 1964 there were nine more deaths from leukemia than expected in a population of 20,000 (28 vs. 19). The study, uncovered by the Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, had long been ignored by the U.S.P.H.S. because, as its author admitted, the pattern of deaths was inconclusive. Another survey of the fallout area showed a growing number of thyroid cancer deaths between 1965 and 1967. It too was inconclusive; but both studies should have encouraged further monitoring of the residents.

In Washington, a shocked HEW Secretary Joseph Califano has called for a search of old health files for the region. Back in Utah, a newly formed "committee of survivors" is on the lookout for more possible victims. Before their grim search is over, the "survivors" expect to find a dramatically higher toll.

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