Radioactive rebar linked to cancer

The boy, however, was not one of the subjects in Chang's research.

"The government has lost contact with too many victims and are therefore no longer getting any help," Hsu told the Taipei Times.

A group of residents led by Minsheng Villas residents established the Radiation Victims' Association Taiwan to fight for compensation from the government and to raise public awareness that being exposed to radiation was dangerous.

Many of the victims had spent their life savings on the apartments they saw as their dream homes, but which later became the source of their nightmares.

In 1993, three officials were censured for neglect of duty after having learned in 1985 that Minsheng Villas was seriously contaminated by radiation. In 1994, the Taipei District Court accepted lawsuits for state compensation from 65 residents of Minsheng Villas.

But it was not until 1997 that the court made a judgment in favor of 57 of the residents and told the government to compensate them for physical, property, and psychological losses resulting from the intentional negligence of government officials who had concealed information.

That was the only successful case for victims who asked for state compensation.

The AEC's role

Fewer than 20 of the almost 200 buildings discovered to be contaminated by radiation were properly dealt with. Some residents continued to live in the radiation-contaminated buildings because the selling price offered by the AEC was far less than what the homeowners had originally paid.

The AEC also carries out studies relating to radiation-contaminated buildings. Researchers from the medical school of National Taiwan University confirmed only that the rate of death of thyroid-related diseases among the victims was higher than that of other population groups.

Another research paper by the AEC published in the British medical journal the Lancet in February last year shows that the incidence of chromosomes being affected in people who lived in radiation-contaminated buildings was substantially higher than that of control groups.