[Health effects of plutonium pollution--assessment after the Thule disaster in 1968].

On 21 January 1968 a B-52 airplane with four nuclear weapons crashed on the ice close to the Thule air base in northern Greenland. Approximately six kilograms of plutonium was dispersed in the surroundings. Since 1968, the possible health impacts among the Danish civilian workers who assisted at the clean-up have been discussed regularly. A Nordic expert group was appointed by the Danish government to examine the evidence. The group concluded in May 1995 that no conclusive evidence of damage to the health of the worker as a result of plutonium pollution had been reported. However, they recommended continued follow-up of record linkage studies on cancer and a closer investigation of the rare skin disease parapsoriasis en plaque.