Idaho bill would benefit nuke fallout victims
http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/678827.html
Idaho Reps. Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick are renewing an effort to extend federal compensation to victims of nuclear fallout from Cold War weapons testing.
Simpson, a Republican, and Minnick, a Democrat, are joined by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in pressing for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. Simpson and Matheson made a similar request in the last Congress, but were unsuccessful.
In a letter to Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and the ranking Republican, Lamar Smith of Texas, the congressmen ask that the committee consider expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include areas in Idaho and Utah that were hard-hit by radiation. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has introduced legislation in the Senate in past sessions, but no hearings have been held.
Payments of $50,000 are available to people who have suffered any of 19 cancers covered by RECA. To qualify, they must have lived in one of 21 counties in Nevada, Utah and Arizona during Nevada bomb tests between 1951 and 1962. Almost 13,000 downwinders have received $645 million since 1990.
Idaho is not covered. Some Utah counties are included, but several high-radiation counties are not. Four Idaho counties ranked in the top five in the nation for having the highest per capita thyroid dosage of radiation - Gem, Blaine, Custer and Lemhi. The other 40 Idaho counties all had higher thyroid dosage than some RECA-covered counties.
When you come to visit, take note of the scars on peoples necks here. Scary business, it has not been ruled out that my lung disease was not brought on by those lovely little clouds from down south.
ReplyDeleteThat could explain why there is so much shit that happens in Emmett, and why so many people do better and feel better once they leave that town.
ReplyDeleteI rememeber once when a couple of my classmates had spoken about it in some presentation. Then I read about some study in the Boise Weekly about how IQ went down in towns where there was nuclear fallout. Didn't one of my cousins have surgery on her throat a little while back? I think the main concern is for occupation of these towns between the 50's and 60's, they are not going to give a crap of anyone after.
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