Group items tagged

In recognition of Idaho downwinders who suffered from nuclear weapons testing that began in Nevada 58 years ago today, Gov. Butch Otter has proclaimed Jan. 27 as "Downwinders Day of Remembrance." Otter's proclamation recognizes "the sacrifices of the Downwinders‚ and all other participants in and victims of the Cold War, and hereby memorializes their losses." Downwinders in Nevada, Utah and Arizona who suffer from cancers connected to nuclear fallout are eligible for $50,000 government payments in recognition of the government's role in harming their health. But Idaho, which has four counties among the hardest hit by fallout, is not covered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Those four counties are Blaine, Custer, Gem and Lemhi.

Idaho's nuclear downwinders have earned their right to cynicism. The federal government has ignored them. Their elected officials - namely Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne - had the chance to press the downwinders' case while serving in the U.S. Senate, but didn't do nearly enough. The downwinders believe their elevated cancer rates are linked to nuclear weapons tests conducted on the Nevada desert during the 1950s and 1960s. The Cold War has ended but the bureaucratic battle continues. Senators are taking a third run at expanding a federal program that provides payments to downwind cancer victims. Previous efforts have failed.

Health care push could help residents of Idaho and Montana gain compensation, they say. WASHINGTON, D.C. - For years, Idaho residents downwind of Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing have fought for recognition. This year, the downwinders believe they'll finally get their opportunity, in the form of federal legislation that could make a federal compensation fund available to residents of Idaho and Montana with cancer attributable to fallout from testing in the 1950s and 1960s. "I think it has a better chance this time than it's had for a long time," said Tona Henderson, an Emmett resident and one of the leading advocates for downwinders in Idaho. "I'm not necessarily a supporter of Barack Obama, but he's bringing up health care and health issues, and I think there are more people in Congress who already are thinking in that vein."

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Advertisement The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation. Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.

"When one lusts for the bottom line of financial windfalls or political benefits, compassion always falls by the wayside. Only a lust for the bottom line of compassion itself will not leave any soul un-nurtured. :::::::: When late last month U.S. Senator John McCain was asked by a woman at a Springerville, Arizona, town hall meeting what he was doing about getting Mohave County, Arizona, added to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (or RECA, a 1990 law that compensates radiation victims of U.S. nuclear weapons activities including fallout victims called "downwinders'), his answer: "We are still doing everything we can to see that happens" - must have sounded to those in the audience like a hollow assurance. It sure did to me. The group Mohave Downwinders, led by Eleanore Fanire until her passing last November, and that group's allies, had feverishly lamented the cold shoulder given to them by their longtime Senator, Mr. McCain. But it must be April Fools day all this month because McCain actually followed through on his word and formally stated on April 28th his intention in a press release to introduce legislation to add Mohave County "to the list for counties eligible for downwinder compensation under RECA." "

The Salt Lake City-based journalist was working on a manuscript for a nonfiction book about the nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and the downwinders who attribute various health problems to those tests. During the research she told an actress about her own personal battle against thyroid cancer. It is one of the diseases eligible for compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 for people who lived in certain geographic areas during the Cold War-era above ground testing. Dickson's sister, Ann, also passed away from complications of lupus. Some downwinders and doctors believe there may be a connection between the testing and autoimmune diseases like lupus but there is no proof.

SPOKANE A federal judge has indicated he's not willing to continue trying 2,000 claims in individual trials and admonished attorneys as an 18-year-old lawsuit over radioactive emissions from Hanford prepares to resume. About 2,000 downwinders have pending claims that their health was damaged, primarily as radioactive isotopes were released into the air and blown downwind at Hanford during World War II and the early years of the Cold War. In the six years that Judge William Fremming Nielsen has had the case in Eastern Washington Federal District Court, he had hoped that by taking a few claims to trial attorneys could better evaluate claims and reach settlement agreements. Just 10 claims have been settled in that bellwether process, with some jury decisions since reversed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The resolution of 10 claims in 18 years through the litigation process requires the court to conclude that the process is proceeding at a pace that is not expeditious and is far too slow to bring the litigation to resolution," Nielsen wrote in a court order.

"This is the third and final installment of a series of stories about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and the possible effects the Trinity Site test may have had on residents of the area developing cancer. "I hate the fact that we have been treated as insignificant scientists have been compensated but our community has been ignored," cancer survivor Tina Cordova said. "We have to fight for the recognition that our environment was damaged and, in the process, we were also damaged. It is a shame that they did not come back and tell us our food supply is compromised." Cordova, who grew up in Tularosa, was a medical student for two years before creating her own business in Albuquerque. After much discussion, she and Tularosa resident Fred Tyler formed the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium to collect data and see what they could do to help survivors in the wake of the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb explosion that shook the Tularosa Basin. In July 2005, they worked with several volunteers to collect cancer histories from local residents ending up with well over 100 documents of a cancer culture that had festered quietly among generations of families."

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Hanford's contractors in the massive downwinders' lawsuit - raising hopes for a legal settlement for up to 2,000 radiation-exposed people after 18 years of court battles and millions of dollars in litigation costs. The high court's one-line denial of the contractors' appeal was announced today. The contractors, including E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., General Electric Co. and UNC Nuclear Industries Inc., filed their appeal in August, asking the court to review two recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that sided largely with the downwinders.

"More Hanford downwinders could be going to trial to have their claims heard in a 19-year-old case. Almost 2,000 plaintiffs have pending claims, many of them asserting that past emissions of radioactive material from the Hanford nuclear reservation were carried downwind and caused cancer or other thyroid disease. Some people also believe they developed other cancers from eating contaminated fish. On Wednesday, Judge William Fremming Nielsen of Eastern Washington District Federal Court in Spokane said that he would select 30 of the claims for hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroids, to proceed to trial as soon as October. In addition, about 32 claims filed for thyroid cancer will be considered for settlement with the help of a mediator."

"Old-timers in a remote desert of northwest Arizona still talk about the mushroom clouds. A half century ago they could ride on horseback up the nearest hill to watch the nuclear weapons tests being held next door in Nevada. Today, they also talk about the cancers that came after those tests. Eventually Congress agreed to pay compensation to most of these downwinders, except they left out one area in Arizona - one closest to the test site. Now after decades of activism that may finally change, sparked in part by the recent death of the woman who led the fight for the downwinders there. Daniel Kraker of member station KNAU reports. "

"Several Western senators have introduced a bill seeking to triple the compensation for downwind cancer victims of Cold War atomic testing. The bill would also make it easier to prove claims and would expand eligibility for compensation payments to all of Utah - instead of just 10 counties that now qualify. But opposing the changes is Sen. Orrin Hatch - co-author of the original 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that created such compensation. "I fear it is overly broad and prohibitively expensive," he said, worrying that high costs might sink the program in budget battles and take current compensation programs with them. Hatch added, "I also believe it is important to continue to base any expansion of the program on sound science" - and add only those changes warranted by new scientific findings."

"Senators want uranium compensation on fast track Colorado's two U.S. senators are seeking a hearing on a bill that would expand the compensation program for the nation's nuclear-weapons industry workers. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, both Democrats, wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-N.J., urging a quick hearing on the measure, S. 3224, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2010. The measure "would address key deficiencies in RECA, and extend compensation to a number of currently unqualified but suffering uranium workers and downwinders," the senators wrote. The amendments would expand the qualifications for compensation for radiation exposure to include post-1971 uranium workers for compensation; equalize compensation for all claimants to $150,000; expand the downwind exposure area to include seven states; and fund an epidemiological study of the health impacts on families of uranium workers and residents of uranium-development communities. "

A few years ago, Ward wrote for Tomdispatch about various plans to dump radioactive waste, including 40 years worth of "spent fuel rods" from nuclear reactors, in his Utah backyard. People who lived downwind were alarmed. They had been exposed to radioactive fallout during the era of atomic testing in the 1950s and feared more of the same -- cancer for "downwinders" and obfuscation and denial from federal regulators. Since Ward wrote his account, local activists have successfully blocked the projects. Score one for the little guys.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and two Idaho congressmen are calling for hearings into whether a program to compensate downwind cancer victims of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and '60s should be expanded to include more areas - including several counties in Utah and Idaho. "Eligibility for compensation is limited to certain counties in just a few states. These geographical boundaries are, quite frankly, arbitrary boundaries that do not account for the fact that radioactive fallout does not abide by lines on a map," Matheson and Reps. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, wrote to House Judiciary Committee leaders. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act currently applies to residents who lived in 21 counties, including 10 in Utah - mostly in southern Utah nearest to the Nevada Test Site. However, the Deseret News obtained fallout maps in past years showing its path went through Salt Lake County and parts of eastern Utah for some tests.

All four Senators representing Idaho and Montana are sponsoring new legislation that would make residents of the two states eligible for a federal government program that compensates people who lived in affected areas downwind of the Nevada Test Site during periods of atmospheric nuclear testing during the 1950s and 60s. Under the legislation, those victims would be compensated if they contracted cancer or other specified compensable diseases following the testing. The bipartisan legislation introduced today, S. 1342, would amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include all of Idaho and Montana.

For the first time in the protracted Hanford downwinders lawsuit, the lead lawyer for government contractors said Tuesday his companies are ready to offer cash settlements to a few of the thousands of people who believe their illnesses were caused by radiation releases. U.S. District Judge William F. Nielsen hosted more than a dozen attorneys in Spokane for a status conference on the 18-year-old downwinders lawsuit, which has cost taxpayers more than $57 million to defend.

Bill Mangum recounted the story about his battle with leukemia in early 1992 and the loss of his leg as a result of a bad bedsore that became gangrenous without much of a problem, but when he began to tell Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, about his dealings with the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program Clinic, Mangum began to cry. Advertisement Mangum, along with Wenda Turnbeaugh, met Wednesday morning at the RESEP clinic to tell their stories about being Downwinders and their experiences at the clinic. "I can't say enough about her (Carolyn Rasmussen)," Mangum said emotionally.

"To date, the U. S. government has paid out $61,650,000 on some 1,213 claims prepared right here in Globe under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The majority of these claims are called "downwinders," filed on behalf of persons who became ill with one of the certain type of cancers on a government approved list while living here in Gila County between Jan. 21, 1951 and October 1958, for a total period of 24 months, or for the period of June 1962 through July 3l, 1962. However, one needs to examine the U.S. Justice Department's list of approved cancer diseases, because not all cancers are eligible for compensation for "downwinders." In addition, the compensable disease list differs for other types of claims available under this federal act, if they are used. "

"Guam - A group of Guam lawmakers and residents will soon be headed to Washington to push for Guam's inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act known as RECA. alt Dim lights Embed From 1945 through 1962, the United States detonated nearly 200 atmospheric nuclear weapons, .many of the tests were conducted in the Marshells on Eniwetok Atoll. Guam is more than 1,600 miles downwind from the Marshalls. Until recently, many thought, it was too far away to suffer any radiation fallout from the atmospheric testing. But that turned out not to be true. That became apparent when President Clinton signed an Executive Order declassifying thousands of pages of documents showing Guam was exposed to fallout carried down wind from the Marshalls. And as "downwinders" Senator Ben Pangelinan says Guam should be included in RECA which would provide up to $50-thousand dollars in compensation to people who lived on Guam between 1946 and 1974. Robert Celestial is the President of the Pacific Islands Association for Radiation Survivors. He was the one who searched through the de-classified documents back in the 90's and found the evidence of Guam's exposure to fallout from the nuclear testing in the Marshalls. Both Pangelinan and Celestial believe that there are links to Guam's high cancer rates and the radiation that fell on island during the atmospheric nuclear testing in the Marshalls."