Downwinders want Idaho to file lawsuit
BOISE – A group of residents suffering health problems likely caused by radioactive fallout is asking the Idaho attorney general to sue the federal government.
House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet and 15 others wrote a letter to Attorney General Lawrence Wasden requesting that he file a class action lawsuit against the federal government and private corporations. They want compensation for detrimental health effects caused by nuclear testing during the 1950s and 1960s. The iodine-131 component of nuclear fallout has been linked to cancer.
“I’d like to have the attorney general get involved,” Jaquet said. “I think it’s just another alternative for compensation.”
But there is one problem, said Bob Cooper, Wasden’s spokesman.
“As a general rule, the attorney general does not file class action suits,” Cooper said. Instead, private attorneys typically handle lawsuits like this, he said.
“There may be a misunderstanding of the legal system,” Cooper said.
He would not comment specifically on the letter, but said Wasden would respond to the senders directly.
During a hearing earlier this month, the downwinders testified in front of representatives of the National Academy of Sciences about including Idaho under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which pays $50,000 to residents in some parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona for health problems related to nuclear testing.
But local downwinders say the federal government tested at times when they knew weather patterns would carry the fallout into Idaho, and state residents should be compensated appropriately.
The National Academy of Sciences intends to make its recommendation to Congress in March.
The letter writers said they were concerned with three main things: time, the amount of compensation and the types of illnesses considered for compensation.
Ailing downwinders need money now to pay medical bills, Jaquet said. Under current procedures Idaho downwinders have to wait for Congress to decide whether they should be included in the compensation program.
Even if Congress does decide to include Idaho, the law only recognizes 20 types of cancer for compensation and offers $50,000.
“People have bills in excess of $50,000,” Jaquet said.
Some local researchers have found high concentration of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis in the region around Shoshone, which was affected by fallout, Jaquet said.
The letter suggests the government should compensate downwinders not only for medical bills, but also for pain and suffering. The same act that compensates downwinders $50,000 pays miners – who knowingly assume some risk with the job – $150,000.
The letter suggests a higher level of compensation for downwinders: “We were innocent bystanders hundreds of miles away. So $250,000 appears appropriate.”