Nuclear tests in Paris trigger cancer
According to research by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), nearly 200 nuclear tests carried out by France in the Pacific over 30 years, from 1966 to 1996, increased the risk of cancer in this region.
These nuclear tests may be the trigger for 0.6 to 7.7 percent of thyroid cancer cases that occur in the archipelago called French Polynesia.
INSERM researcher Florent de Vathaire stated that several variants of thyroid cancer that appeared later in the region were associated with the period of nuclear testing.
In the epidemiological investigation carried out on 395 cases of thyroid cancer between 1984 and 2016, the results of which were published in the region in 2010, it was revealed that declassified documents and meteorological data were effective in a significant part of thyroid cases in This region.
French President Emmanuel Macron, during his visit to French Polynesia in 2021, in his speech in the capital Papeete, stated that the 193 nuclear tests carried out by France in the region between 1966-1996 affected the health of the local population and that your country should French Polynesia had not made an official apology.
NUCLEAR TESTS
Between 1966 and 1996, France conducted some 210 nuclear tests in its former colony of Algeria and its overseas territory, French Polynesia. Of the 193 nuclear tests carried out in Polynesia, 147 were underground.
The nuclear tests, which are estimated to have affected more than 100,000 people, were suspended during the period of former President Jacques Chirac due to international reactions and it was decided to pay compensation to the victims.
Although a law enacted in 2010 stipulating compensation for nuclear test victims was enacted, only 20 people were compensated. France, which rejected many requests for compensation, was accused of not fulfilling its promise.
MUROA ARCHIVES
Journalists from the Reveal news site, US Princeton University and British environmental group Interprt examined 2,000 documents called the “Mururoa Archives” belonging to the French Defense Ministry and published a book called “Toxic” in March.
After examining documents and interviewing dozens of people from both France and French Polynesia, the researchers pieced together the radiation effects of France’s nuclear tests in the region in 1966 at Aldebaran, 1971 at Enceladus and 1974 at Centaure.
In the book, which highlights that France sometimes deliberately underestimates the effects of trials, it is pointed out that the radiation level was up to 10 times higher than that calculated by the French Atomic Energy Commission in 2006 and the amount referenced in the compensation to the victims.
The book concluded that the French authorities had concealed for 50 years the true impact of nuclear tests on the health of the islanders.
According to Disclose, which reports that so far only 63 French Polynesian citizens have been compensated for radiation exposure from the nuclear test, nuclear tests in the region have affected more than 100,000 people.
Polynesian head of government Fritch, stating that 60 years of denial, intimidation and contempt cannot be erased in an instant, demanded to discuss the issue with the French administration. (AA)