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Radiation, Cancer & Veterans

By VVAW

While Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange join to fight for testing, treatment and compensation and for an end to the us of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T; another group of victims of the U.S. government and the profit-grasping corporations is carrying on a similar battle. These are the victims of radiation. They include some 250,000 American troops ( now mostly vets) who were deliberately exposed to radiation during atmospheric nuclear tests, military personnel who went into Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the U.S. bombings, workers in a number of plants where nuclear radiation is present, people living near Three Mile Island or other nuclear plants, uranium miners (primarily Native American) and people living around government test sites.

In Mid-April, the Citizens' Hearing for Radiation Victims brought together representatives of all these groups plus experts in the field, and, in their final report, called for an end to experimentation on humans, and reductions in public and occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. Further, the conclusions of the hearings urged compensation for exposed vets, workers, and other, and new and independent scientific research, along with unrestricted access to medical records.

In addition to the 250,000 vets exposed to radiation during atomic tests from 1946 to 1962 (sometimes, as close as 1000 yards from ground zero!) many vets were sent into Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the U.S. bombings with an absolute minimum of protection and less information about the potential dangers of radiation exposure. Moreover, the Defense Department and Atomic Energy Commission (now the Department of Energy) conducted human experiments to "improve" nuclear technology, examining behavior patterns without paying any attention to possible physical effects. And while, as far as is known, the government is not now conducting this kind of experiment, all the nec-mechanisms are still in place.

The incidence of cancer and other diseases among these vets is far above a non-exposed groups of the same age. Yet, as in the case of Agent Orange, the V.A. is moving at the speed of a crippled turtle, apparently in hope that vets will all die off and leave the V.A. to shuffle its papers in peace!

ATOMIC-TEST VETS LEADER KELLY 49, DEAD

Another veteran fighting to get the government to deal with the disability of which he died, is dead of cancer at the age of 49. Orville J. Kelly of Burlington, Iowa, was a sergeant at the Eniwetok proving grounds in the Pacific in 1957 and '58, during which time he witnessed 22 atomic test. He later organized the National Association of Atomic Veterans which is fighting to get exposure to nuclear test recognized as a cause of disability by the V.A.

Like exposure to Agent Orange, the exposure to the atomic test has had an often fatal effect on veterans long after they were our of the service, and the V.A., squeezing every nickel, refused to grant that the disability involved was "service connected." Kelly fought on and finally, in November of 1979, won pension rights for himself and his family.

VVAW expresses its respect and admiration for those who, like Mr. Kelly, fought for the cause of veterans dying of exposure to deadly U.S. weapons. We intend to carry on the fight to get treatment and compensation for those veterans and their families.