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born before 1971? calculate your cancer risk due to I-131 exposure

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donsu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:32 PM
Original message
born before 1971? calculate your cancer risk due to I-131 exposure


http://ntsi131.nci.nih.gov/default.asp


Welcome to the Individual Dose and Risk Calculator
for Nevada Test Site fallout

This calculator estimates the radiation dose from I-131 absorbed by your thyroid gland from nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The calculator also estimates your risk of thyroid cancer from this exposure.

Testing was conducted at the NTS from 1951 through 1992. However, only the above-ground tests conducted from 1951 through 1962, and some of the underground tests conducted from 1961 through 1970, produced appreciable I-131 fallout in the continental United States and are included in this calculator.

To use this calculator, you will need to supply:

* your date of birth and gender
* the states and counties that you lived in between 1951 and 1971
* the primary type of milk that you drank (cow or goat)

Note: Before you start the calculator, we urge you to read the Summary Information to learn more about the tests, about I-131 exposure, and about thyroid cancer risks.

If you were born after 1971, you were not affected by tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Your estimated I-131 dose from these tests is zero. You do not need to use the calculator.

Start Calculator
------------------------------------


I calculated mine and it was fairly low which didn't surprise me as I was living in the Wash., D.C. area, (Md.) along with Md. dairy cows, and I knew the big boys wouldn't have test I-131 floating toward D.C.

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LisaM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
1. I calculated mine and it seemed fairly low
though it didn't have the real amount of milk I consumed, which was 0-1 glasses per day (the surrounding choices were 0 and 1-3) so I'm guessing it was a bit lower than it came out.
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donsu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. what area of the country were you in?
nt
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LisaM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 01:49 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. Michigan
Not too close to Nevada.
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Bozita Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:40 PM
Response to Original message
3. Scary stuff! ... The calculator is REALLLLY slow
Thanks.
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donsu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. it wasn't slow when I used it. must be very busy
nt
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HuskiesHowls Donating Member (582 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
5. Nuclear Testing is the reason
Edited on Tue Dec-21-04 01:02 PM by HuskiesHowls
Eastman Kodak films are wrapped in foil.

Reprinted with permission From Richard L. Miller’s “Under the Clouds: The Decades of Nuclear Testing”

# In 1951, two days after the Atomic Energy Commission began testing nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site, Eastman Kodak's Rochester, New York film production facilities began producing batches of film that were clouded by the effects of radiation generated in Nevada. Kodak’s Geiger counters detected high levels of radiation in snow that blanketed Rochester, New York. When Kodak complained, the AEC agreed to provide Kodak and other photographic companies advance warning of nuclear tests so they could protect the film. The American people were never granted the same courtesy.

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/atomicveteran/stop-tests.html

My dose, in central Iowa was: The best estimate of the thyroid dose you received is 36 rad.


edited for results and spelling
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donsu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 01:07 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. thanks for the info - never knew that
nt
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Tikki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
6. I wonder when the .gov will release a calculator for Hanford and....
other Nu Klur facilities that are known to have released radiation into the air, ending up in cows milk via soil and grass growth contamination.

I looked for other calculators and couldn't find any others.

We were raised in an area adjacent to Hanford during the suspect time 1947~1959...There is, what I believe to be, a disproportionate amount of early age deaths (under age 60) from cancers in both my husband's and my graduating classes from our High School.

We moved away from that area as very young adults, I hope this will have made a difference.



The Tikkis

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Danmel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
8. For once being from Brooklyn was GOOD for my health
Edited on Tue Dec-21-04 01:09 PM by Danmel
Mine was 000.017 or something like that.
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baba Donating Member (452 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
10. Just being female...
My thyroid cancer risk was higher than my husband's, who grew up in Nevada! According to the calculator, though, neither one of us was exposed to very much.
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Razorback_Democrat Donating Member (756 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 03:21 PM
Response to Original message
11. Calculated mine on both 1-3 and more than 4 glasses of cow's milk
growing up in Utah (next to Nevada) born in '61, and found that I have a very low chance 1.8 out of a 1000 I think it said chance of getting thyroid cancer.

I certainly remember the testing, but I do think it was all below ground in my memory (age 3 or so up)

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noonwitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-21-04 03:22 PM
Response to Original message
12. I am far more concerned about the PBB I ingested in the 70s in Michigan
Nobody talks about it anymore, except Michael Moore in "Stupid White Men". It was scary as hell for a little kid like I was at the time it was discovered that the USDA (under Nixon) had mixed fire retardant in with the cattle feed, then distributed the tainted feed to farmers in Michigan. Detroit was somewhat spared, because Sealtest (the biggest milk company in the area) bought their milk out of state.

Cattle farmers all over had their animals dying, the families of those farmers were seriously affected because they drank unpastuerized milk, and the farmers eventually had to bring all their cattle to "kill sites" in which the cattle were killed, then buried in cement vaults to prevent the poison in them from contaminating soil and groundwater.

When I was in high school, our health teacher told us all that we should have our breast milk checked for PBB before we ever nursed a baby. I haven't had any babies, so... However, they do not check people for this, my sister has had two babies in Grand Rapids and no one even suggested she get tested. People pretend it never happened, plus the West Michigan area had a lot of outsiders move to the area in the 80s, people who wouldn't necessarily be thinking about it.
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