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French govt’s nuclear veterans’ cancer compensation inadequate

Veterans unhappy with French government’s compensation for nuclear tests, Google hosted news, By The Associated Press (CP)  29 June 2010, ARCUEIL, France — Veterans and workers who fell ill after France’s nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific have said the government’s measures to compensate victims did not go far enough…..victims’ associations said Monday the government has ruled out compensating many people who should qualify. Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific.

Based on a law passed last year, compensation is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Victims submit their claims to the committee Morin visited in the Paris suburb of Arcueil. The committee, just starting its work, said it has received about 20 claims so far…………

The Association of Veterans of Nuclear Tests, known as Aven, and Moruroa e tatou, an association of Polynesian workers sickened by radiation, complained that the government does not recognize enough cancers in its list of ailments that qualify for compensation.

In a joint statement, they said says male breast cancer and more types of thyroid cancer should be included on the list. The defence minister said the list of ailments “takes into account the most recent scientific reports.”

The victims’ associations also say the geographical restrictions are too narrow. “While all of Polynesia was greatly contaminated by the 41 atmospheric tests between 1966 and 1974, Morin’s decree says radioactive clouds fell selectively on only four islands or atolls and on a few communities in Tahiti,” the statement said.

The Canadian Press: Veterans unhappy with French government’s compensation for nuclear tests

June 29, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, weapons and war | antinuclear, cancer, France, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium