Many 'downwinders' are found upwind

WASHINGTON — Dear National Research Council,

Because I live far away, I could not attend your hearing in St. George, Utah, on Monday about whether to expand the compensation program for downwind victims of atomic bomb testing in the '50s and '60s. So I am writing you this open letter.

For 22 years, I have covered "downwinders" — and watched many of them suffer painful deaths, including some close relatives and friends.

Most did not qualify for government compensation because of problems in its formulas but died believing that they were victims. I believe that, too. But, according to the qualification formulas, they lived a few miles in the wrong direction, or lived in the right place at the wrong time, or were too old or young, or had the "wrong" type of illness.

I believe myriad such people nationally should qualify for government compensation. But I also am confident that politics will never allow that. Why? Paying all of them would be too expensive. The country could not afford it.

But that decision is not really facing a special Research Council panel formed by legislation passed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. He wants it to see if science warrants expanding the compensation program he created in 1990.

Let me offer some reasons why expansion would be fair — which unfortunately are also reasons why politically it likely will never happen.

First, government studies have clearly shown that blasts at the Nevada Test Site scattered radiation in virtually every county in the nation. But only residents in a few counties in southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona now qualify for compensation.

For example, 10 years ago I obtained copies of early radiation maps from the Energy Department. I was astonished to see that the Nevada tests caused radioactive snow in faraway Rochester, N.Y. Scientists at the Kodak photo plant there discovered it because it was fogging film.

So government officials set up some quick monitoring to track radiation after later tests. Quick studies found soon thereafter that radioactive snow fell in Troy, N.Y.; Chicago; Rochester (again); Salt Lake City (twice); and many smaller communities. Obviously, millions of people lived in those areas.