Downwinders Not The Enemy

The Cold War ended years ago, but costs and casualties continue to rise. And the responsible governments are handling shabbily their obligation to the people who pay the bills and bury the dead.

In Belarus, extraordinary numbers of children are arriving at hospitals with fallout-related conditions such as thyroid cancer. They live - and die - in a region contaminated by one of the last tragedies of the U.S.-Soviet nuclear contest - the meltdown at Chernobyl of a reactor which had the capacity to produce bomb ingredients as well as electricity. But their government at least has devoted some funds to the treatment of fallout victims, although money is short and much of the sophisticated equipment required has been donated by other nations.

In the United States, on the other hand, the government actively fights U.S. citizens who were exposed to fallout from nearby nuclear weapons installations and who contend that, as a result, they suffer unusual rates of cancer and other health problems.

There has been one exception to this pattern of avoidance. In 1990, Congress passed a law providing compensation to people who fell ill after residing in fallout zones downwind from the nuclear bomb test site in Nevada.

But the government is resisting responsibility for health damage caused by factories where nuclear weapons were made. The possibility for such damage is clear. At Hanford, slipshod safety controls, mishaps and deliberate experimentation sent occasional clouds of radiation over Eastern Washington during the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Nearly 4,000 Hanford “downwinders,” who lived in the path of that pollution, have sued. Meanwhile, attorneys hired to fight them off have cost taxpayers an astounding $35.8 million. And after six years of legal shenanigans, a trial still is not in sight.

As those attorney fees grow, so should questions about whether the courts are the right avenue for a remedy. While it was appropriate for victims to sue, it seems logistically improbable that 4,000 of them each could prove a health-damage claim in our convoluted courts. Besides, tumors don’t come with labels that say, “Made in Hanford.” Furthermore, how much sense would it make for juries or judges to make some of the Cold War’s final victims (and their lawyers) into millionaires? Can mere cash right this wrong?

Medical care, pensions, a federal acknowledgment of liability, steps to prevent a recurrence - these would be appropriate ways to make amends. Congress and the White House ought to look for a fair and timely way to do the right thing. That means getting help to those who need it - rather than to the lawyers.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board