Memorial seeks downwinders compensation
BOISE – Exactly how many people have been affected by radioactive fallout in Idaho, and to what extent, may still be in question, said Rep. Kathy Skippen, but their stories are what really matters.
Behind the stories are people – like Skippen’s old schoolmate in Emmett, Sheri Garman – who suffer or have died from cancer and other diseases caused by exposure to radioactive fallout. It’s because of them that Skippen has cosponsored a House joint memorial that, if passed, would ask Idaho’s congressional delegation for help in getting compensation for the downwinders affected by nuclear weapons testing in Nevada in the 1950s.
The House State Affairs Committee introduced the memorial Tuesday.
“My story is a sad one,” Garman told the committee. “But you could hear the same story over and over again in Idaho.”
Garman, 53, was exposed to more than 70 rads of radiation as a baby in 1952 and has had thyroid and breast cancer ravage her body during the past 15 years. That amount of exposure is the equivalent of more than 9,000 chest X-rays. Recently, the cancer spread into her liver.
Garman’s father died last week of the disease.
“He ran out of time,” said Garman, who now lives in Vancouver, Wash. “Soon, there won’t be people to tell the story of cows eating the dust and spreading the radiation. … Further delay would only increase the shame.”
Passed in 1990 and amended several times since, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act gives $50,000 in “compassionate” payments to residents of 21 counties in Nevada, Arizona and Utah exposed to the radiation.
But Skippen and others who want compensation for Idahoans say four of the five most affected counties are in Idaho, including Gem, Lemhi, Blaine and Custer counties.
“The stories are just as tragic and the numbers far greater” in Idaho, said a visibly shaken Skippen, R-Emmett. “It’s an issue of fairness.”
Radioactive fallout spread throughout fields in Southern Idaho during the Cold War-era tests, poisoning the grass, crops, animals and, ultimately, people. It was spread through locally produced milk and other dairy products. The iodine-131 component of the fallout has been linked to cancer.
Growing up in Sweet, Idaho, just northeast of Emmett, Skippen said she was exposed to 45 rads as a child.
“My mom just told me that we had a cow for years that we milked,” she said. “I never realized it before.”
The National Academy of Sciences will release a report at the end of March on whether the coverage area that the compensation act uses to determine compensation should be expanded. It will also address the number of diseases associated with the fallout.
The academy held an all-day hearing in Boise last November to hear from Idaho downwinders affected. The four members of Idaho’s congressional delegation, as well as Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, were there.
Asked what kind of impact the joint memorial could have on Congress, Skippen said, “The Legislature needs to go on record in supporting the measures the downwinders have taken so far. We are recognizing there are victims in Idaho.”
Added Garman: “It will make a big impression.”