They Never Knew PDF
Preview They Never Knew
THEY EVER EW 01906 BY GLENN CHENEY AN IMPACT BOOK FRANKLIN WAITS A DIVISION OF GROLIER PUBLISHING NEW YORK LONDON HONG KONG SYDNEY DANBUR~CONNECTICUT Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cheney, Glenn Alan. They never knew : the victims of nuclear testing I by Glenn Cheney. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: Examines the American government's role in develop ing nuclear weapons and conducting atomic testing, focusing on the effects of radiation on humans and the victims' attempts to sue the government for compensation. ISBN 0-531-11273-X 1. Nuclear warfare-Health aspects. 2. Nuclear weapons Testing-Health aspects. [Nuclear warfare-Health aspects. 2. Nuclear weapons-Testing-Health aspects. 3. Radiation victims.] I. Title. RA648.3C475 1996 363.17'992'0973-dc20 96-14262 CIP AC © 1996 by Glenn Cheney. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada. Printed in the United States of America. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 R 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 INTRODUCTION 7 ONE THE BOMB AND THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION 12 TWO THE BOMB AND THE COLD WAR, 1945-1950 22 THREE TESTING IN NEVADA 35 FOUR ATOMIC TESTING AND THE PEOPLE NEARBY 51 FIVE THE MYSTERY OF THE SHEEP 62 SIX THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS ON HEALTH 71 SEVEN THE PEOPLE VS. THE AEC IN COURT 88 EIGHT TREATIES TOWARD A TEST BAN 105 GLOSSARY 11 o SUGGESTED READ I NG 114 SOURCE NOTES 116 INDEX 125 One hundred and forty-nine atomic bombs have exploded over America.1 No one knows how many peo ple these bombs have killed. The initial heat and shock of the explosions probably killed no one. Open-air atomic explosions, however, have more-lasting and distant effects. They create and release tremendous amounts of highly dangerous radioactive materials. Radiation causes leukemia and other forms of cancer, cardiovascular problems, cataracts, immunological weaknesses, genetic defects, prenatal problems, mental retardation, and many other health problems. Such problems, however, occur only years or decades after the explosions. Al I doctors and scientists can do is esti mate the number of the problems and the number of probable deaths. Estimates of deaths worldwide from American, Soviet, British, French, and Chinese atmos pheric nuclear tests range from something near zero to several million.2 In the name of democracy and self-defense, the United States tested bomb after bomb at a test site in Nevada. Each shot sent tons of radioactive particles " 7 • boiling into the sky and drifting across the United States. Uranium, plutonium, cesium, strontium, iodine, and other radioactive forms of elements gradually came to earth as fallout. A lot of the fallout settled in Nevada and Utah, ki 11 ing cattle and sickening residents. It caused burns on ranchers' skin, leukemia in children, cancer in adults, and deformities in the unborn. It contaminated milk in North Dakota.3 It ruined photographic film in New York. It settled into the soi I of every state except Alaska and Hawaii.4 Another sixty-six test bombs-many of them far more powerful than those in Nevada, were detonated over the Marshall Islands, a U.S. Trusteeship territory in the South Pacific. An estimated 5,000 local people had to abandon their homes and live for four decades on distant islands. Some 42,000 U.S. military personnel try ing to clean up the atomic mess worked under condi tions so radioactive that they would be illegal in any American industry today. 5 In all, almost half a million Americans have had an atomic bomb, or several, explode near enough to do them harm. How many have these bombs killed? After years of lies and denial, the United States government reluctantly admitted to a toll of perhaps a dozen civil ians. Although thousands of American citizens have sued the government, claiming damages that range from illness to death, few have received compensation. These lawsuits have been generally unsuccessful because among other reasons, it is difficult-perhaps impossi ble-to establish a definite link between illnesses like cancer and explosions that happened hundreds of miles away and ten or twenty or forty years in the past. Scientists, among them several Nobel laureates, have warned that the radiation from atomic bomb tests may eventually cause as many as 10 million deaths worldwide. Other scientists claim the fallout was so dis- . 8 • persed and diluted by air and water that it could not be harmful. The U.S. Congress investigated the claims. It found neg I igence in the testing program and horrifying conse quences. U.S. courts, however, have very rarely award ed compensation to those who claim to have been injured by radiation from the tests. Among the victims are an unknown number of the 250,000 military personnel who witnessed atomic explosions or their aftermath during training for nuclear warfare. Used as human guinea pigs, they were ordered into positions as close as 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from atomic explosions so that the military would learn the effects of radiation on their physical and mental health. Some were used as human robots to gather information near ground zero or in radioactive clouds. Some soldiers were protected by nothing more than a trench dug 6 feet (1 .8 m) deep and perhaps sunglasses or a cotton face mask. All this while scientists and officers hid in specially protected bomb shelters many miles away. Bombs were not the only source of exposure to radi ation. A government research program had hospital patients injected with plutonium, one of the deadliest substances in the world.6 Some 16,000 people were subjected to experiments involving radiation, many of them unaware of the nature of the experiment or the real degree of danger. No one will ever know the whole truth. Information was hidden by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and other government agencies. Much of the available information has been distorted by hysteria, rumor, and wild fears. The tests may have been dangerous, but they took place during dangerous times. A war in Korea was in the process of killing tens of thousands of U.S. troops. The Soviet Union, an avowed enemy of the United States, • 9 "
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