Downwinders

I am a "downwinder." A downwinder is someone who is exposed to nuclear radiation, specifically during atomic testing in the 1950's and 60's. I spent my childhood living on a dairy farm in Idaho. We drank raw milk from our Jersey cows who grazed on grass from the meadow by the house and ate hay harvested from our own farmland, thus concentrating any exposure from nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1950's. It seems that radiation caught the wind patterns and fell hundreds of miles away just like the government thought it would, mostly on less populated parts of the United States. This was information which would take decades to become public knowledge.

When I first read about downwinders and realized that I qualified as one a few years back, I had also just been diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroid disease. Thyroid issues are common in downwinders (Hyperactive thyroids are medically destroyed using radioactive iodine.) Interestingly, 4 of my 6 siblings are currently taking medication to treat thyroid problems. Both of our parents had thyroid issues, but on opposite ends of the spectrum. Thyroid cancer is common in downwinders. I insisted that my endrocirnologist place copies of articles that I had collected about downwinders in my medical file. There was no resistance on his part.

I was born in Fremont County and our dairy farm was in Madison County, both of which are in the red northeast corner of Idaho just below Montana and west of Wyoming as you can see in the map of the United States at the beginning of this post. I find this map to be fairly sobering. I've been thinking more about being a downwinder lately as I read, watch, and hear about the nuclear energy plant disaster in Japan. I also find it hard to trust those who are reassuring us that there is no danger.