title: Uncertain science and a failure of trust. The NIH radioepidemiologic tables and compensation for radiation-induced cancer.
abstract: In the late 1970s, the U.S. Congress was debating a number of different proposals to provide monetary compensation to residents of Utah and Nevada who had been exposed to radioactive fallout from government nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s. Yet scientists and government officials expressed concern that such a program would end up compensating many people for cancers that were not caused by the fallout. Thus, after much debate, Congress directed the National Institutes of Health to produce a set of statistical tables--the radioepidemiologic tables--to target compensation awards to "deserving" individuals. Advocates of the tables, notably Senator Orrin Hatch, argued that reliance on scientific data would provide compensation decisions with predictability and evenhandedness. Yet in the end, the effort to employ the tables failed. The substantial scientific uncertainties in the tables and in their application to individual claims failed to deliver the authority they promised. Additionally, the goal of fairness and objectivity could not be convincingly met because of persistent controversy and mistrust surrounding the government's role in the study of health effects of low-level radiation.
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, 6130 Executive Boulevard, Suite 3109, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parascandola
mesh_terms: D035881:Compensation and Redress / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006078:Government Programs / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.) / Q000266:history*; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009689:Nuclear Warfare / Q000266:history; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D011847:Radioactive Fallout