Consulting in the Public Interest, Lambertville, NJ.
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
Health Phys. 2019 Dec;117(6):625-636. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000001103.
In 1966, about 1,600 US military men-mostly Air Force-participated in a cleanup of plutonium dispersed from two nuclear bombs in Palomares, Spain. As a base for future analyses, we provide a history of the Palomares incident, including the dosimetry and risk analyses carried out to date and the compensation assessments made for veterans. By law, compensation for illnesses attributed to ionizing radiation is based on maximum estimated doses and standard risk coefficients, with considerable benefit of the doubt given to claimants when there is uncertainty. In the Palomares case, alpha activity in urine fell far faster than predicted by plutonium biokinetic excretion models used at the time. Most of the measurements were taken on-site but were disqualified on the grounds that they were "unreasonably high" and because there was a possibility of environmental contamination. Until the end of 2013, the Air Force used low dose estimates derived from environmental measurements carried out well after the cleanup. After these estimates were questioned by Congress, the Air Force adopted higher dose estimates based on plutonium concentration measurements in urine samples collected from 26 veterans after they left Palomares. The Air Force assumed that all other cleanup veterans received lower doses and therefore assigned to them maximum organ doses based on the individual among the 26 with the lowest urine measurements. These resulting maximum organ doses appear to be sufficient to justify compensation to all Palomares veterans with lung and bone cancer and early-onset liver cancer and leukemia but not other radiogenic cancers.
1966 年，约 1600 名美国军人——主要是空军——参与了西班牙帕洛马雷斯清理两处核爆炸散落的钚污染的行动。作为未来分析的基础，我们提供了帕洛马雷斯事件的历史，包括迄今为止进行的剂量测定和风险分析，以及对退伍军人的赔偿评估。根据法律，归因于电离辐射的疾病的赔偿是基于最大估计剂量和标准风险系数，当存在不确定性时，对索赔人给予相当大的怀疑。在帕洛马雷斯案中，尿液中的阿尔法放射性活性下降的速度远远快于当时使用的钚生物动力学排泄模型所预测的速度。大部分测量是在现场进行的，但因被认为“不合理地高”以及存在环境污染的可能性而被取消资格。直到 2013 年底，空军一直使用低剂量估计值，这些估计值是根据清理工作结束后进行的环境测量得出的。在国会对这些估计值提出质疑后，空军根据 26 名离开帕洛马雷斯的退伍军人尿液样本中的钚浓度测量结果，采用了更高的剂量估计值。空军假设所有其他参与清理的退伍军人接受的剂量较低，因此根据 26 名退伍军人中尿液测量值最低的个人，为他们分配了最大器官剂量。这些最终的最大器官剂量似乎足以证明所有患有肺癌、骨癌、早发性肝癌和白血病的帕洛马雷斯退伍军人都应获得赔偿，但不能证明其他放射性癌症也应获得赔偿。
