People who have suffered from radiation exposure from nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining in areas surrounding the Nevada Test Site are known as “downwinders.” Many of them call Utah home.
A program critical to compensating victims,the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, expires on June 10. To help move the process forward, a group of downwinders are in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress to expand the program.
Since 1990, the government has paid out $2.4 billion to more than 38,000 people across the West, but some have said the program is too narrow.
For longtime volunteer and Downwinders Inc. trustee Steve Erickson, the compensation act needs to “cover those who were left out of the original legislation, which we always knew was not perfect, but what was achievable politically at the time.”
“What we're proposing is expanding it to places where we know that there are significant epidemiological studies showing that there were folks getting these various cancers.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, radiation fallout from nuclear testing impacted all 50 states, but it was especially prevalent in western states including Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Montana.
In Utah, the current version of RECA only encompasses those who were exposed in 10 southern counties. Downwinder advocates say that leaves out thousands more who were affected by the legacy of nuclear testing in the West.
That includes Mary Dickson.
While she is not legally considered a downwinder since she grew up in Salt Lake City, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1985, which radiation exposure is a known risk factor. Dickson is representing the Utah downwinder community in Washington. She is also a former employee of PBS Utah, KUER’s sister station at the University of Utah, and currently hosts the program Contact.
“Once you've had cancer, you worry every time you have an ache, every time you have a pain, every time you have a lump that you're getting it again,” she said. “I've had friends who it's come back after 12 years and it's tragic.”
Dickson said she has counted 54 people in her childhood neighborhood of Canyon Rim, near Parleys Canyon, who were diagnosed with cancer or an autoimmune disease — including three sisters — which she links to radiation exposure.
“It's like a plague. And I'd say it's a generational plague at this point.”
With a personal connection to the plight of the downwinders, Dickson sees a duty to continue advocating for those who are still waiting for recognition from the federal government.
“I promised my sister before she died that I’d tell people what happened to us,” she said. “And my cousin, her husband, died of colon cancer. She always said your story didn't end tragically so that you can carry the tragic story forward. So I just feel immense responsibility.”
Two bills in Congress — one to extend the program for two years and one to expand it — await votes.
Downwinders, along with the Navajo Nation, strongly support expanding the program.
But the fight could prove to be difficult. Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy’s staff says even a clean extension will likely be a fight in Congress.
Maloy, along with Rep. Burgess Owens and Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, have backed the two-year extension. Spokespeople for the senators both cited budget concerns as a central reason for not supporting an expansion. But advocates say the political will is there, especially since that bill passed with bipartisan support in the Senate in March and is waiting for a final vote in the House.
“It can [pass] if the Speaker of the House will put it on the floor for a vote,” Erickson said.
“We would prefer not to have to go through this again. It doesn't do justice to those who are needing the compensation now to help them with medical expenses and the rest. We'd really like to get this across the finish line as written.”
For downwinders receiving compensation, and those like Dickson who have been seeking it for decades, time is running out. They’ll be in Washington D.C. through May 16.
“We've got so many people who do have political power reaching out to Speaker Johnson to get this on the floor for a vote,” Dickson said. “But one of the problems is there's so many other pressing issues right now that I think makes it a little tougher. I would kind of call this our last ditch effort.”
