Scientists: nuclear tests in the United States killed 695 thousands of people

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Beginning in the 1950s, the U.S. government conducted hundreds of nuclear weapons tests at a remote site in Nevada, building up nuclear capabilities amid rising Cold War tensions. But nuclear fallout from reckless experiments before 1963 had serious and unpredictable consequences - and, as show new studies, they may have been much more extreme than previously thought.

Millions of Americans were subjected to ground tests in the US for a huge amount of radioactive contamination that has penetrated the environment and food, leading to 695 000 deaths from 1951 to 1973 a year.

Shocking new studies show that the total number of deaths was "comparable to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

After the 1963 year, tests in the United States were conducted underground, but by that time 100 atmospheric tests had already been carried out at the test site in Nevada.

In a new study, University of Arizona scientist Keith Myers analyzed annual radiation levels in the United States. And there was one vector in particular through which Americans came into contact with deadly contamination: milk.

The researcher studied the estimates of concentrations of pollutants in milk produced at the local level, and demonstrated serious data on the effects of radioactive fallout on humans.

From 1951 to 1973, Meyers found that radioactive isotopes from the tests contributed to the deaths of 395 to 695 people.
The researcher found that radioactive contamination spread throughout the country, with a higher concentration in a number of hot spots.

“The geographic scope of the fatal consequences is greater than previous studies have shown,” Myers wrote. “The biggest health impacts are emerging in areas far beyond the scope of previous scientific and medical research. Scientific and medical literature has examined the effects of atmospheric testing on populations living in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Counter-intuitively, the areas where releases had the greatest impact on mortality rates were not in the area surrounding the test site, but in areas with moderate levels of radioactive fallout inland." The researcher notes that this was largely due to herding practices.

Overall, Myers claims that 100 ground tests conducted at the Nevada test site contributed to "hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the United States from 1951 to 1972 a year."

And if it had not been for the moratorium on tests put into effect in the 1958 year, and the Partial Test Ban Treaty, there would probably have been hundreds more thousands of deaths.

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