Potential funding crisis for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation

Recent reports have suggested that the US government is considering a drastic cut in funds for the coming financial year (US 2005 fiscal, starting October) for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF)-the US-Japanese body responsible for collecting, collating, and analysing data on the survivors, and their children, of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.1,2 The Japanese atomic-bomb survivors are unigue among irradiated populations with well-estimated doses in that both sexes and a wide range of ages were exposed, compared with those of a general population.3 Largely because such a diverse population was affected and the survivors were exposed to a wide range of generally uniform whole-body doses, including large numbers with low or moderate doses, the Japanese Life Span Study cohort is the epidemiological gold standard for assessing radiation health-effects in human beings. These data are the principal source of information used by national and international scientific bodies to estimate risks of radiation-related cancer incidence and mortality.4-6 The Life Span Study is one of the longest and most comprehensive prospective cohorts ever. Yet, after more than 50 years of study, there is much more to be learned from the survivors who were children in 1945 and who are still alive.