Nuclear testing

Disorders identified
People identified during a nuclear-testing-fallout study as having thyroid disorders will be informed of those disorders now that the study has been cancelled.

The study, of connections between fallout from Nevada nuclear tests and thyroid maladies, was cancelled by the Centers for Disease Control after consuming three and a half years and $8 million without reaching completion. The cancellation sparked charges of coverup.

Dr. Joseph Lyon, the director of the project, says researchers examined about 1,700 people in the course of the study and some of them have thyroid problems.

“So we have to notify several hundred individuals they have problems and will need follow-up,” he told the Deseret News.

There was no explanation of why the subjects of the study weren’t told promptly of their thyroid problems when they were first diagnosed.

Lyon declined comment on whether the number of thyroid problems identified was higher than would be expected in a normal or unexposed population.

Most of the scientists and other workers on the study will be laid off by the end of the month.