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Show S . N Letters To The Editor Editor: This letter is in response to the letter written by William Thorley in the Iron County Record January 18. 1 respect Mr. Thorley's right to tell us of his experiences in Nevada during the testing of atomic bombs in the years 1951 to 1963. But, I do not see how he can presume to know what was happening in Southern Utah. He stated that he was in close touch withthe Atomic Energy Commission and how they came to his ranch in Pioche, Nevada area and walked through his herds of sheep to check if they were being affected by the radiation. Mr. Thorley was very lucky; the people of Parowan called many times to try to get the Atomjc Energy Commission to come and check on the doses of radiation we were receiving. Ranchers here had their sheep die by the hundreds from the effects of the radiation and, in later years, many of the sheep herders her-ders have died of various forms of cancer, and no one ever came. The Atomic Energy Commission has no record of the massive doses of radiation received by people in Southern Utah, especially Parowan, because they never came to check. Parowan lies in a valley, surrounded by mountains, and provided a special sort of pocket where the clouds of atomic dust often settled. At the time of the early tests, especially the "Big Smokey" test, we had a big pink cloud of radioactive dust over town all day and into the night. We took pictures of it and one colored slide we have shows clearly the contrast between the blue sky, white clouds, and the deadly pink cloud. Prior to these tests were a healthy population and I have found no one in Parowan who can remember a child having lukemia before that time. Then in the next seven years, four beautiful children died of lukemia and one little girl of a malignant brain tumor. Lukemia took a pretty little red-haired girl only seven years old, two young boys in their early teens, a lovely young girl in junior high, and the brain tumor also a very young teenage girl. It is a proven fact that excessive doses of radiation can cause lukemia and also other types of cancer. Cancer has run rampant through the town of Parowan since the bomb tests, with almost every family having been touched by it in some way or another. Radiation-caused cancer can take many years to develop, some as long as 20 to 30 years. The cancer rate in Parowan is three times the national average and is almost all confined to the residents who lived here or visited during the test The government has repeatedly said that they are sure of the fact that massive doses will cause cancer but they do not have a study to show the effects of small doses. Members of the Highway Patrol in the Parowan-Paragonah Parowan-Paragonah area, however, called the Atomic Energy Commission on several occasions asking them to check the radiation levels in the area and they never came. At that time there were many amateur prospectors in Parowan who had purchased Gieger Counters to search for uranium deposits and, during many of the tests they were ' forced to come home because the rocks, ground, and trees were so "hot" that their Gieger Counters moved oyer to the maximum reading wherever they put them. We were not warned to stay inside or wash our clothes or bodies. The children played outside as usual, farmers went on about their business of planting and harvesting. We drank the milk from the cows who had eaten the radioactive grasses and hay, and ate the vegetables from our gardens and the fruit from our trees. The deadly atomic dust settled over us time after time and we were virtually ignored by the Atomic Energy Commission. This cancer-causing radiation has shown no mercy for young or old and is still taking a heavy toll. The people in Parowan who are fighting this disease now are many in number and many more have lost the battle. Also, Mr. Thorley, we could see the light in the sky from Parowan and the sound of the blasts rocked our houses. Little did we know it was the sound of impending doom for hundreds of Southern Utah residents. Mary Gae Evans |