The unpublished report, France’s first official recognition of the health impact of the tests, says the location of the cluster, “focused on the islands where the fallout was heaviest … leaves little doubt about the role of ionising radiation” in the cancers.
Thyroid, throat and lung cancers, as well as cases of leukaemia and lymphoma and bone and muscle conditions linked to strontium and caesium poisoning, remain prevalent across the islands, the researchers say, citing interviews with multiple inhabitants, many of whom were children at the times of the tests.
The researchers also cite a confidential exchange of emails dating from 2017 in which the French army acknowledges, reportedly for the first time, that as many as 2,000 of the 6,000 military personnel based in French Polynesia and involved in the tests between 1966 and 1974 have since contracted at least one form of cancer.
Source: France has underestimated impact of nuclear tests in French Polynesia, research finds | French Polynesia | The Guardian
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