The Dose Reconstruction "hoax"

Even before atmospheric nuclear testing began, certain key figures in the planning process expressed fear of law suits by servicemen injured by radiation. Soon after the tests were ended in 1963, The Defense Nuclear Agency published a series of books on each of the tests in which they described each in great detail but in which the amount of radiation to which the servicemen were exposed was made deliberately low and without identifying the components of the radiation such as plutonium 239, cesium 137, iodine 131, strontium 90 etc. each of which attacks a certain part of the body. This was a key part of the coverup.

The first radiation-compensation law passed was PL 98-542 that listed a number of diseases that could be caused by radiation but required the claimant to provide a dose reconstruction to give false hope of having the claim approved. The VA, however, was given the option of having a specialist of its choice do a dose reconstruction also and, in all but a handful of times, the VA's dose reconstruction was lower than that submitted by the veteran and the claim was denied. The Va seems to have no difficulty in finding a pronuclear "authority" to submit a dose reconstruction lower than that provided by the claimant.

Because of complaints by the veterans, some limited presumptive radiation-compensation laws were eventually passed. The kicker is that most claimants didn't and still don't know if their cancers and other radiogenic diseases are covered by these laws. What does the VA do in such cases? First, even if a disease is covered by one of the presumptive laws, the VA doesn't go one inch out of its way to adjudicate the claim according to the appropriate law, another way of its deceptive way of denying claims.

The VA eventually added to the list of radiogenic non-presumptive diseases well aware that legislation, all but impossible to enact, would be required to make them presumptive by law. So the phony dose reconstruction fiasco continues while attempts to pass the needed laws fails time after time.

The Disabled American Veterans to its credit, in its August 1999 National Convention, made the following resolution:

• WHEREAS, the government has spent tens of millions of dollars to provide dose reconstruction estimates which do not accurately reflect actual radiation dose exposure; NOW
• THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Disabled American Veterans in National Convention assembled in Orlando, Florida, August 21-25, 1999, supports legislation to provide presumptive service-connection to atomic veterans for all recognized radiogenic diseases.

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The VA and the DoD must be held accountable for their deceptive use of dose reconstruction!

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