Here in Utah and across the country, Jan. 27 is a National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders, the people exposed to radiation from the testing and production of U.S. nuclear weapons.
But just how many Utahns have become sick and died because they were exposed to toxic radiation from U.S. nuclear weapons?
One possible estimate can be found in the more than 8,000 Utahns who have received compensation through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Not all have died, but the illnesses they’ve dealt with — leukemia, lymphoma, pulmonary fibrosis, cancers of the brain, lung and stomach, among others — are life-altering.
I’m proud to say my father, Tim Maxwell, helped many of these people apply for RECA benefits. For years, he worked with a program through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helping families prove their residency in impacted areas in order to receive compensation.
Latter-day Saint scripture calls us to care for the sick and afflicted. To answer this call, Latter-day Saints support our communities with cancers and other ailments as a result of uranium mining and nuclear testing. My father spent many hours scouring through old church records — blessings, baptisms, ordinations and tithing — to enable hundreds of residents of the American West to receive much-needed benefits for the severe price they paid as a result of radiation exposure.
But the true number of people poisoned by U.S. nuclear weapons is undoubtedly higher. Residents of northern Utah have been excluded from RECA for the past 30 years, even as studies suggest that they were exposed to comparable levels of radiation. Instead, they have been abandoned.
Now, Utah’s senators and representatives have the chance to correct this long-standing neglect. At the end of 2024, Sen. Mike Lee came out in favor of a measure that “expands and preserves benefits for Americans hurt by government nuclear testing, mining and waste storage.” Lee should be a leader for downwinders in Utah and across the country by getting a deal done.
As a community and a country, we have a responsibility to serve these brothers and sisters and their families with care and compassion. It’s long past time for Congress to fix RECA to include long-ignored victims.
In the decades since RECA was first enacted, we have learned of more American victims of nuclear weapons left out of the program: Missouri families living with radioactive waste from uranium processing in their backyards; New Mexicans exposed to fallout from the first ever nuclear weapons test; miners poisoned while working to support their families. Recent research from Princeton University suggests that the fallout from U.S. tests reach every state in the lower 48.
The Senate has already shown that fixing RECA is a bipartisan issue with broad support. Now we need our representatives to come together and get the job done, for all of the people we’ve lost and for all of Utah.
Mike Maxwell is a former employee of a nuclear power-generating public utility and Chair of the Salt Lake Area Chapter of Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship. Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship is a global 501(c)3 non-profit that serves the global Latter-day Saint community in education and activity to care for the earth.
The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We rely on your insight to do this. Find out how to share your opinion here, and email us at voices@sltrib.com.