Editing Nevada Test Site (section)

==Cancer and test site==
{{main|Downwinders}}
[[File:US fallout exposure.png|thumb|right|300px|[[Iodine-131]] fallout exposure in [[Rad (unit)|rads]]]]
Many communities east of the Nevada Test Site, including [[Cedar City]], [[Enterprise, Utah|Enterprise]], and [[St. George, Utah]], received fallout from above-ground [[nuclear testing]] in the [[Yucca Flats]] at the site. Winds routinely carried the fallout of these tests directly through St. George and southern Utah.  Marked increases in [[cancer]]s such as [[leukemia]], [[lymphoma]], [[thyroid cancer]], [[breast cancer]], [[melanoma]], [[bone cancer]], [[brain tumor]]s, and gastrointestinal tract cancers were reported from the mid-1950s through 1980.<ref name="jama1984" /><ref name="Falk, Jim 1982 p. 134" />

On May 19, 1953, the 32-[[kiloton]] (130 [[joule|TJ]]) atomic bomb (nicknamed "Harry") was detonated at the site. The bomb later gained the name "[[Upshot-Knothole Harry|Dirty Harry]]" because of the amount of off-site [[Nuclear fallout|fallout]] generated by the bomb.<ref>[http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0526-05.htm Meeting Dirty Harry in 1953] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618094720/http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0526-05.htm |date=June 18, 2013 }}. Chester McQueary, ''CommonDreams.org.''</ref>

A 1962 [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] report found that "children living in St. George, Utah may have received doses to the [[thyroid]] of [[radioiodine]] as high as 120 to 440 [[Rad (unit)|rads]]" (1.2 to 4.4 Gy).<ref name="ieer">Pat Ortmeyer and Arjun Makhijani. "[http://www.ieer.org/latest/iodnart.html Let Them Drink Milk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820105629/http://www.ieer.org/latest/iodnart.html |date=August 20, 2014 }}," ''[[The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'', November/December 1997, via [http://www.ieer.org/index.html IEER] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413011459/http://www.ieer.org/index.html |date=April 13, 2012 }}. Retrieved October 31, 2007.</ref> A 1979 study reported in the ''[[New England Journal of Medicine]]'' concluded that:

<blockquote>A significant excess of [[leukemia]] deaths occurred in children up to 14 years of age living in Utah between 1959 and 1967. This excess was concentrated in the cohort of children born between 1951 and 1958, and was most pronounced in those residing in counties receiving high fallout.<ref>Gerald H. Clarfield and William M. Wiecek (1984). ''Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States 1940–1980'', Harper & Row, New York, p. 215.</ref></blockquote>

In 1982, a lawsuit brought by nearly 1,200 people accused the government of negligence in atomic and/or nuclear weapons testing at the site, which they said had caused leukemia and other [[cancer]]s. Dr. [[Karl Z. Morgan]], Director of Health Physics at [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]], testified that radiation protection measures in the tests were substandard to best practices at the time.<ref name="karl">{{Cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502EFDE1238F930A25755C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print |title=Karl Z. Morgan, 91, Founder of the Field Of Health Physics, Dies in Tennessee |access-date=February 11, 2017 |archive-date=May 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506034211/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/13/us/karl-z-morgan-91-founder-of-the-field-of-health-physics-dies-in-tennessee.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a report by the [[National Cancer Institute]], released in 1997, it was determined that 90 atmospheric tests at the site deposited high levels of [[radioactive]] [[iodine]]-[[isotope|131]] (5.5 [[becquerel|exabecquerels]]) across much of the contiguous United States, especially in the years 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1957{{snd}}doses large enough, it claimed, to produce 10,000 to 75,000 cases of [[thyroid cancer]]. The [[Radiation Exposure Compensation Act]] of 1990 allowed for people living downwind of the site for at least two years in particular Nevada, Arizona, or Utah counties, between January 21, 1951, and October 31, 1958, or June 30 and July 31, 1962, and suffering from certain cancers or other serious illnesses deemed to have been caused by fallout exposure to receive compensation of $50,000. By 2014, over 28,000 [[downwinders|downwinder]] claims for a total compensation of $1.9&nbsp;billion had been processed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/omp/omi/Tre_SysClaimsToDateSum.pdf |title=Radiation Exposure Compensation System: Claims to Date Summary of Claims Received by 05/08/2014 |access-date=February 24, 2006 |archive-date=September 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907192321/http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/omp/omi/Tre_SysClaimsToDateSum.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Additionally, the [[Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program]] Act of 2000 provides compensation and medical benefits for nuclear weapons workers who may have developed certain work-related illnesses.<ref>[https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/ocasabt.html Office of Compensation Analysis and Support] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910114954/https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/ocasabt.html |date=September 10, 2017 }}. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.</ref>

Uranium miners, mill workers, and ore transporters are also eligible for $100,000 compassionate payment under the [[Radiation Exposure Compensation Act|Radiation Exposure Compensation Program]], while $75,000 is the fixed payment amount for workers who were participants in the above-ground nuclear weapons tests.