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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Institute of Medicine
Board on Health Care Services
Committee on Thyroid Screening Related to I-131 Exposure
and
National Research Council
Commission on Life Sciences
Board on Radiation Effects Research
Committee on Exposure of the American People to I-131 from the Nevada Atomic Bomb Tests

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Congressional Briefing
September 4, 1998

Exposure of the American People to Iodine-131 from Nevada Atomic Bomb Tests:

Review of the National Cancer Institute Report and Public Health Implications

During the 1950s and 1960s, nearly 100 atmospheric nuclear bomb tests were conducted at a site northwest of Las Vegas. One of the radioactive elements in the fallout from the bombs was iodine-131, which has been linked to thyroid cancer. Approximately 160 million people living across the United States during the tests might have been exposed to varying levels of iodine-131. A joint Institute of Medicine/National Research Council report entitled, Exposure of the American People to Iodine-131 From Nevada Atomic Bomb Tests: Review of the National Cancer Institute Report and Public Health Implications, evaluates government estimates of the amount of radioactive iodine to which people were exposed and the number of thyroid cancers that may result. Possible public health strategies also were examined.

This briefing was for Members of Congress and/or Congressional Staff. The report was publicly released on September 2, 1998 and can be found, in its entirety, on the Web site of the National Academies Press.