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Show Volume I , Issue IX The Ogden Valley News Page 25 June 1999 SHEEP (cont.) from page 24 following: (1) Radiation exposure from fallout did not occur after 1962; (2) Only Iodine-131 causes cancer; and, (3) After age 20, health risks from exposure miraculously ceases. All three expectations are false. Of the 828 underground tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site, the June, 1990 “Draft NCI report 6” revealed that at least 10 cratering shots and 8 underground tests vented radioactive materials into the atmosphere. Other sources have placed the number of ventings at 40. None of these numbers include the unannounced and secret tests. Due to weather and the west to east wind patterns, people within the United States were again unknowingly subjected to fallout of radioactive debris. The last “confirmed” venting occurred in 1986. The nervous mathematics continue. The radioactive debris contained in the fallout from atmospheric and vented underground testing was composed of radionuclides which, unlike I-131, do not decay rapidly. Radionuclides such as Strontium-90, Cesium-137 and Plutonium-239/240 have much longer half-lives and are still detectable in present-day soil and food products. Half-life defines the amount of time a radioactive substance requires to lose one-half of its radioactivity. Once the radioactive substance is taken into the body, radiation will continue to be given off until either the radioactivity has decayed or the body has eliminated the substance through metabolism. I131 has a half-life of 8 days. Strontium-90, best absorbed by bone surfaces and red bone marrow, has a half-life of 28.8 years. Beyond I-131 and the thyroid, age does not deter the impacts of internalized radioactivity. The enormity of radioactive releases from the Nevada Test Site almost defies comprehension. Overshadowing Chernobyl, approximately 150 million curies of I131 alone were released into the atmosphere. The layered atmospheric winds carried the radioactive products far and wide. To the residents of Utah, the obvious must be stated. The National Cancer Institute openly acknowledged that Utah “received the highest levels of fallout from nuclear testing of any state in the U.S.” The AEC conducted limited tests in 1971 and 1974 for plutonium residuals in Utah soil. Utah’s plutonium levels were 3.8 times higher than any other state. Nothing about plutonium 239240 is benign, bearing a half-life of at least 24,000 years. It should, therefore, especially be of grave concern to Utahns that the NCI study chose to only focus upon I-131 and thyroid cancer. Sadly, for the entire nation, little was said about radiation-induced autoimmune thyroiditis which creates serious medical conditions. Absolutely nothing was mentioned about other radiation-induced cancers and diseases. Should Senator Hatch have known that the NCI study had failed not only the amendment he had introduced, but also the citizens of Utah and the rest of the nation? Thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism, in regards to the potential problems from exposure to other radionuclides, are the equivalent of the caged canary in the coal mine looking ill. Dr. Owen Hoffman testified, “In the case of thyroid cancer mortality is less than 10 percent. The lethality fraction, or chance of death, is much higher for the types of cancer induced by the other radionuclides.” Carbon-14, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 represent but a few of the “other radionuclides” readily taken up in the food chain and measurable even today. Will it take another 14 years to learn from government studies of the “other radionuclides” capable of greater injury and assurance of death? Will citizens have the initiative and courage to engage federal representatives to look beyond I-131 and the diseased caged canary? The accumulation of enduring radionuclides is much like the amassing of snow in wintertime — the new deposits adding to the old. The radioactive fallout of the nuclear tests conducted in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s deposited upon the previously emitted radioactivity of the 50’s. In addition, when nuclear testing in other countries results in radioactive atmospheric releases, this too increases the overall amount of radionuclides already accumulated in the U.S. Yes, fallout from Chernobyl did reach the United States. Exposure to radioactive particles and risk for radiogenic cancers and diseases obviously did not end with the 50’s and St. George, Utah. My friend eased back into her chair. She shifted her weight away from the side of her body which now lacked a breast. Her arm, missing portions of muscle underneath, rested in her lap. My face must have shown my concern. She reassured me that she was fine — it was her mind that throbbed. She wondered how she could sort away all I had said. How would she separate the tangle of emotions? Was I sure of my facts? “Yes”, I replied. They knew of the westerly wind, she continued, but when did they (the government) know of the human risk, the delay of cancer and disease? I spoke of a 1946 memo by Colonel Stafford Warren, an officer in charge of radiological safety of the nuclear tests in the Pacific, which had told of the harm and the death that could occur years later. He had wanted this matter openly and publicly discussed. The people were never told. From that point on, all evidence suggesting that nuclear testing was having harmful effects, be it on sheep, children or adults, was disregarded and suppressed. People were to dearly pay for an obsession with “the bomb.” Words will never define, I told my friend, the embarrassment I feel when our nation’s leaders point fingers at other countries for their travesties against human rights. For a bomb, we killed and maimed our own. Our nation is the pot calling the kettle black. U.S. citizens have been strongly pressed, in the matters of radiation damage, to forget and lie down. But, if we choose to do so, our submissive acts will leave wide open the opportunity for history to repeat itself upon our children and our children’s children — and it will. We are alive and we are significant. Our children deserve strong, uncompromised bodies to build dreams into reality. The breasts of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters and friends were never meant to chronicle a nation’s insanity. We sat a moment in silence. She arose and stretched. “Don’t trip over my soap box,” I joked. She cast a slight grin and returned to her chair. Refusing to go out into the night without a solution, a silver lining to the black cloud I had just presented her, she waited for me to continue. I would begin my story of the wind. The Wind’s Wisdom Growing up in this hot, dry region, the wind accompanied every aspect of our lives. Its cool, early breeze dried our morning wash and made the weeding of gardens bearable. Neighbors emerged to water lawns. By noon, the wind often rose to a strong pitch. Clothes were gathered inside and children sought the shelter of walls, barns and foliage to continue play. At times, intermittent dark, dust-laden clouds boiled through the streets and around homes. By evening, the gentle breeze returned to offer relief from mosquitoes, as adults relaxed outside after supper and children collected for night games. The dust, gathered by the wind and suspended in the air, created magnificent sunsets. We had no reason to suspect that the wind had borne more than the natural elements of earth and water. For reasons revolving around patriotism, McCarthyism, the Cold War, over enthusiasm drove government officials, the AEC and scientists to harness the miracle of nuclear energy in the interest of national security at all costs. Humanitarian insights of potential harm to plant, animal and human life were lost. The nuclear weapons testing program was never to be compromised by truthful information to the public. This governmental quest was fiercely protected. For reasons revolving around patriotism, McCarthyism, the Cold War and Utah’s cultural background, very few individuals in this state challenged the events at the Nevada Test Site. Life proceeded along its routine path and consumed our attention. Questions were not asked. During the 1970’s, the virtual wall built by the AEC around the nuclear tests in Nevada began to show cracks. The studies of doctors and researchers connected with the University of Utah had made troubling observations of thyroid disease and leukemia among children — early responses to injury from radiation. The AEC could not keep them buried. Residents of southern Utah watched as neighbors, family and friends continued to succumb to cancers whose origins could not be explained. Patience, patriotism and trust began to thin. A sympathetic man, Governor Scott Matheson, demanded the truth for his people. Under the Freedom of Information Act, major Utah newspapers fought and acquired AEC documents. Lies were revealed. Congress finally acknowledged the concerns of the people and further documents were pried from the AEC. Senate and House Subcommittee hearings were held, as sheepmen, veterans and civilians spoke of unimaginable suffering, desperate financial conditions, and death — all at the hands of a nation to which they had always been devoted. The unquestioning faith in America crumbled for those suffering most from orchestrated deception. Lawsuits were filed and ultimately lost in the end. Once all the dust had settled, all that remains years later is one clear fact that the government had indeed covered up the health effects from radioactive fallout during nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. A fact which the sheepmen had known almost since the beginning. People are still dying. People are still suffering. The effects of radiation on the human body through internalization remains fundamentally ignored — a compromised segment of our population remains invisible. The man, who in 1983 introduced the amendment to the Orphan Drug Act, which resulted in the mismanaged and incomplete NCI study, also helped guide the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 through the Senate. This man is Utah’s Senator Orrin Hatch. This Act of 1990 provides monetary compensation of $50,000 to individuals who can prove they lived in “designated affected areas” of Nevada, Utah and Arizona during the high fallout periods. Subsequently diagnosed cancer must meet one of the specified 13 cancer types to qualify. The one fact established by the NCI report clearly shows that individuals did not have to live in the “designated affected areas” to experience exposure and the risk for cancer. Common sense provides that cancer is not the only disease humans have suffered from exposure to fallout. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 touches only a relatively small portion of humans harmed by the fallout. Many people suffer twice, the pain of cancer and humiliation of rejection as claims are denied. By 1989, the basic results of the NCI research were known. This information could have been incorporated into the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 had efforts been made to retrieve it. By 1992, major portions of the final NCI draft report had been completed. The individuals sponsoring this Act also could have waited to include these 1992 results to widen the scope of the “designated affected areas.” Many CONTINUED on page 26 |