Hanford I-131 Releases Did Not Increase Thyroid Cancer Risk

WASHINGTON—Scientists have concluded that no increased risk of thyroid disease, including cancer, befell children exposed to Iodine-131 released from the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Production Facility in Washington State. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study (HTDS) found that the risk of thyroid disease was about the same among study participants regardless of dose levels of radiation they received in the period between 1944 and 1957.

Thyroid disease was found in those exposed, but the rates were essentially the same across all levels of exposure, the CDC said. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the CDC released the final report of the 13-year HTDS during a community meeting in Richland, near the Hanford facility.

Congress mandated HTDS after the 1988 revelation by the US Department of Energy that large amounts of I-131 were released at the Hanford facility in the 1940s and 1950s, with releases peaking in 1945.