France''s Nuclear Tests In Pacific ''Gave Islanders Cancer''

French nuclear tests 'caused cancer'

PARIS, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- French nuclear tests in the Pacific caused an increase in cancer on the nearest inhabited islands, a study by a leading scientific body has concluded.

Inserm, an official French medical research body, found a "small but clear" increase in thyroid cancer among inhabitants of islands within a 1,000 mile radius of the Polynesian atolls where France conducted its nuclear tests between 1969 and 1996.

The results are likely to prompt a deluge of compensation claims from civilians and former French military personnel involved in the tests.

Florent de Vathaire, an expert on cancer epidemics at Inserm, said: "We have established a link between the fall-out from French nuclear tests and an increased risk of cancer of the thyroid."

He called upon the French government to finance more studies, including on military personnel who worked on the tests.

France conducted 193 tests between 1966 and 1996 at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in the Pacific (46 in the atmosphere and 147 underground.) France was later forced to admit that some of these explosions caused dangerous levels of radiation on nearby islands, though it has never acknowledged any impact on human health.

After two tests within 17 days in 1966, radiation at five times the permitted annual dose was measured on the Gambier islands. After three tests in 1974, radiation equivalent to the entire permitted annual dose was measured in Tahiti.

France has since abandoned its nuclear tests.

The full results of the Inserm study are to be published shortly in a scientific journal, but the principal findings were released in advance. The French Ministry of Defense has refused to comment until the official publication.