Idaho vies for fallout payments

Craig, Crapo fight for downwinders

By KATHLEEN O'NEIL
koneil@postregister.com

Idaho's senators have proposed an interim fix to a nuclear exposure compensation program that leaves Idaho residents out in the cold. But some Idaho "downwinders" with cancer think that isn't the answer.

Challis resident Judy Schultz, whose brother and husband both have cancers linked to nuclear radiation exposure, said she doesn't think compensation is the answer.

"To me, instead of giving out $50,000, they should put it into free early detection cancer screening for these people," Schultz said, adding that with the cancers and other illnesses, the county seems to be full of need to be documented.

"I just get so angry because they could've done something about this so long ago," she said.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, last amended in 1999, gives $50,000 to people who have cancer that was likely linked to doses of radiation they received as a result of nuclear weapons tests done in Nevada from 1951 to 1963. The act has been criticized for only including residents who lived in 21 counties in southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona during the Cold War testing, and not other areas that had higher levels of radiation.

Four Idaho counties -- Blaine, Gem, Custer and Lemhi -- received some of the highest levels of iodine-131, one of the radioactive elements released by the nuclear tests, according to a 1997 National Cancer Institute study. A National Academy of Science panel recently published the results of its review of the law and people's exposure, recommending that the law be more scientifically based when deciding who is compensated.

Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo introduced legislation Wednesday that would include all Idaho residents who can demonstrate that they have a medical condition linked to nuclear testing fallout.

"Sen. Craig would like Idahoans to be included in the current law while Congress proposes a new one to implement the NAS recommendations," said his spokeswoman, Susan Wheeler. "(Congress) is probably going to need some significant time to figure out how to implement them."

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns has proposed similar legislation for Montana residents.

Schultz's brother, Gary Riggs, said early testing could have helped him and could help others.

He discovered he had a 20-pound tumor in his abdomen due to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last year. It had gone undiscovered until his doctor thought he was having a gall bladder attack, he said, because no one was checking him for cancer.

"All (the senators) are doing is trying to pacify people," Riggs said. "If they funded everybody that should be, it'd break the U.S. I couldn't give a damn about the $50,000 -- the thing I want is for the government to say, 'Yes, we made a mistake, and let's get you in for testing.' "

Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Snake River Alliance, a nuclear watchdog group, said he's not optimistic that the senators' bill will pass, even though he thinks it's needed.

"We're talking about billions of dollars" to add Idaho and all others who were exposed to the program, he said. "It's really on Congress' shoulders to figure out what'll be fair and worthwhile, and what will pass. I think it'll be one hell of a fight."

The government has paid about $360 million to compensate downwinders. There have been no estimates of how much it would cost to cover the entire United States and its territories, as the NAS concluded it should.