URGENT! Tell Congress to pass legislation to help “downwinders” from nuclear testing

September 23, 2020 GlenAnderson Governmental Abuses, Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Nuclear Weapons, Peace (See Foreign Policy and specific nations and regions -- and ALSO see Military Spending and Nuclear Weapons) 0

I urge you to support this effort by Nuclear Information & Resource Service (www.nirs.org), which provides solid information and advocacy to protect the world from nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

I received their e-mail on September 23, 2020.  It needs urgent action to protect people who were “downwind” from nuclear weapons testing and are suffering medically from that.  Here is most of their message:

 

The clock is ticking: If the US House Judiciary Committee doesn’t hold a hearing now and a vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019, the people downwind of the very first US nuclear test will probably never get compensation. Take action now.

Those communities are still living with the fallout from Trinity, the first atomic bomb test, and over 200 similar nuclear weapons tests—and they have never been recognized or compensated for their decades of pain and suffering. Many uranium workers have also been shut out.

In 1990, Congress passed a law meant to compensate victims of atomic bomb testing, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough and will expire in 2022. A bill in the House of Representatives—H.R.3783, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2019—would expand compensation more fully to more of those affected by the tests.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, hasn’t even scheduled a hearing for the bill yet. The communities that live downwind from nuclear test sites (“Downwinders”) really need our help right now.

Whether you’ve already written your member of Congress about this or not, they need to hear urgently from you now. Tell your member of Congress to ask Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Jim Jordan (the committee’s Republican ranking member) to schedule a hearing for this bill.

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1514 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org