-6-
It might ve auded that the Aton.c Energy Commission issues
licenses for the handling of iodine 131 concentrations higher
than .O2 microcuries per liter.
Our estimates show that dozens
of times the milk in these sreas could contain more than .05
microcuries per liter.
Strictly speaking, the farmers and
dairies should have had an AFC license to handle the milk at
all.
4)
Tne diological effects of radiation exposure of the
thyroid, at the levels expected in the region of the Nevada
Test Site, are readily deiucea from the available literature.
There is goneral
acieuli fir
agi concn!
Lhat radiation in
sufficiently large doses can cause thyroid cancer.
agreed,
as stated in the Federal kadiation Council
It is also
Report No. 2
(September 1961), that "the child's thyroid is more sensitive
to the carcinogenic effects of radiation than the adult thyroid.
This conclusion is based vpon several studies in re-
cent years of the secursence of thyroid carcinoma in children
who had previously received therapeutic X-irradiation in the
neck region for eniarged vhymus or for other tenign head and
neck conditions.
The incidsunce of thyroid carcinoma in these
children was significartly nigher than in control groups who
had not been previously irscadiated.
In these studies cancer
of the thyto'. was observeu ia children after exposures as low
as approximatsly lo) ren "
Thus, the pocs:Lie tiy.cid radiation exposures of children
near the Nevada Test Site is clearly in the range considered