Cancer Therapy Center

An article by the Inter Press Service News Agency writes about the correlation between atmospheric nuclear tests (specifically in French Polynesia) and a significant increase in Thyroid Cancer. The tests (192 tests in total, 42 of which were atmosphereic in nature) were widely criticized by Polynesian inhabitants 40 years ago, with two in particular (Aldébaran in 1966 and Phoebe in 1971) releasing much more radiation than had been previously acknowledged.

Up to 150,000 people inhabited the islands in the region at the time. Some 20,000 other people worked at nuclear test sites during the 30 years of testing.

The change in the French government’s position comes after Florent de Vathaire, a researcher at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM, after its French name) reported that the nuclear tests closely correlate with the appearance of thyroid cancer typically associated with radioactivity.

Florent de Vathaire, head of the epidemiological cancer unit at INSERM found “a statistically significant relation” between the nuclear tests and the incidence of thyroid cancer. De Vathaire studied some 240 cases of thyroid cancer reported in the islands.

On July 17 this year, de Vathaire presented his findings to the ministry of defence, and urged it to declassify military reports that he said confirm the findings.

“I would like to study the data contained in the classified documents, which would allow us to confirm in a more precise manner the nature of the health dangers represented by the tests,” de Vathaire told IPS. Cancer victims and their relatives in the French Polynesia have made similar demands.

“So far, the French authorities have said that the nuclear bomb tests did not represent any danger,” Patrice Bouveret, director of the Observatory of French Nuclear Weapons, an independent group, told IPS. “Now, the same authorities are saying that there was indeed a ’slight’ risk.”

But this admission too comes on the basis of reports by military officers, he said. “Nobody else has seen the original documents to verify such claims. If the victims would have these official reports, they could act legally and demand that justice be done.”

The questions are not confined to the south Pacific islands. France carried out 17 tests in Reggane region in the Algerian Sahara in 1961 and 1962, just before Algerian independence.