The little town of St. George, which likes
to boast that “this is where the sun spends the winter,” sits astride
U.S. Highway 91 in southwestern Utah-and directly in the path of
southwest winds blowing from the AEC's Nevada test site for underground
atomic explosions, 140 miles away. Time and again since 1952, much of
Utah, and especially St. George, has been showered with at least 100
and perhaps 1,000 times more radioactivity than the U.S. average. One
of the most active elements in the fallout has been iodine-131, which
gets into grass, then into cows, then into milk, and then into children
who drink the milk. In children, even more than in adults, the
radioactive iodine is selectively attracted to
the thyroid gland.Federal and state health officials wrangled for years over possible
effects of fallout on children's health, then staged mass examinations
last fall in St. George and in Safford, an Arizona town of similar size
that has suffered no appreciable fallout. Among 2,000 children examined
in St. George, 70 had nodules on their thyroid glands, as
against only 25 out of 1,400 in Safford. Were the nodules
cancerous? Was the fallout to blame?Inflamed Glands. Getting firm answers to such questions called for some
cloak-and-dagger work. To guard against starting a panic when 13 of the
St. George youngsters with the most prominent nodules were put into the
University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City, there was no
publicity at all.Last week Surgeon General William H. Stewart of the U.S. Public Health
Service announced the first results of the intensive study. No cancers
have been found, he said. There are several cases of inflamed thyroids,
and proportionately more of these are among the St. George children
than among the Safford children. Added Dr. Stewart: inflammation of the
thyroid seems to have increased recently in many widely separated parts
of the U.S., and there is no proof that radiation, from fallout or
other sources, has anything to do with it.Under the Rug? As in almost all arguments involving fallout and its
potential hazards, equally reputable scientists could be found on both
sides. Some state officials accuse federal officials, especially the
AEC, of trying to sweep fallout dust under the rug. Dr. Robert C.
Pendleton, the University of Utah's top expert on radiology and health,
dismissed even Dr. Stewart's announcement as “the same old bunkum.”
Actually, eight of the 13 children studied in the hospital have been
declared cancer-free; tests on the others will take more time. And 55
of the original nodule cases will be restudied in May by impartial
experts under PHS auspices. They will then be watched closely for years
in a search for final answers to all the questions about Utah fallout.
