This commentary is focused on morbidity and mortality in the population residing near the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. An explanation for higher detection rates and registered mortality of cancer and other deceases is the better coverage of exposed populace by medical examinations and autopsies as well as increased attention of the residents to their own health. Being informed about benefits provided by the government, some patients from non-contaminated territories registered themselves as exposed. The radiation background in the test site area is normal long-since. Studies of human populations exposed to low-dose radiation will hardly add reliable information on dose-effect relationships. Screening effect, selection and ideological bias will contribute to appearance of new reports on enhanced risks from anthropogenic elevation of the radiation background, which would not prove causality. Reliable results can be obtained in lifelong animal experiments. Numerous publications exaggerating medical consequences of elevated radiation background appeared after the Chernobyl accident. Manipulations with statistics have been not unusual, which should be taken into account by authors of reviews and meta-analyses. In the beginning, heated interest facilitated foreign aid and international scientific cooperation. Later on, other motives have come to the fore: anti-nuclear resentments hindered development of nuclear power in some countries, thus boosting fossil fuel prices.