N-test suit dismissed

Press, 8 July 1983, Page 6

N-test suit dismissed

NZPA Salt Lake City The Federal Chief Judge of Utah has ruled that atomic tests did not cause cancer in a man whose widow has asked for SUS2 million ($3.12 million) in compensation. Chief District Judge Aldon Anderson issued his ruling while 1192 plaintiffs await a decision in a multi-million dollar case in which they allege that more than 300 cases of cancer were caused by radioactive fall-out from atomic tests in Nevada between 1950 and 1961.

Judge Anderson said that the atomic tests, which were conducted above

ground, did not cause lymphatic leukaemia, a form of I cancer, in Hale Holgate, i who died on June 15, 1971. 1 Mr Holgate’s widow, Ora, 1 who brought the case, said ] that her husband had con- s tracted lymphatic leukae- 1 mia by being exposed to '< radiation that had drifted i over northern Utah during the tests. < A Federal Assistant At- < torney (prosecutor), Mr j Ralph Johnson, who is re- < presenting the Government < in the Holgate case and the multi-million dollar suit, 1 later told reporters that the t Holgate case had shown t that the scientific commun- i ity agreed chronic lym- j

phatic leukaemia could not be induced by radioactive exposure. The Federal Attorney for Utah, Mr Brent Ward, said that the dismissal was important because it had showed the court was award that not all cancerous 'diseases were induced by radiation. The multi-million dollar case, brought by victims of cancer and by relatives of people who have died of cancer, encompasses various forms of the disease. Federal District Judge Bruce Jenkins is expected to rule on the claim soon after hearing evidence for more than a month last year.