BY DAVID HAMPTON
White Rock

Downwinders are the residents of the Tularosa Basin, who have experienced, and continue to experience to this day, high levels of cancer, infant mortality, and other ailments, since the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated near their homes in July 1945. These ailments appear to be associated with the effects of nuclear fallout and exposure to plutonium, and are similar to those experienced from the detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as sites associated with nuclear weapons production.

In spite of their suffering, they were initially excluded from the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act (RECA) of 1990. This act was extended in 2022, but expired in June of this year. The expiration followed the passage of a bill in the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 69-30, which not only would have extended RECA, but would have added the Downwinders, as well as those who mined uranium ore after 1971. Although it appears to have enough votes in the House to pass, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson allowed RECA to expire without bringing the bill to a vote on the House Floor.

Speaker Johnson will be in Las Cruces this Wednesday to endorse Yvette Herrell for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, and needs to hear from us. Please call Speaker Johnson at 202-225-4000 and ask him to support a vote for RECA on the House Floor. Other key members to contact are Representative Steve Scalise at 202-225-3015 and Representative Jim Jordan at 202-225-2676. Our current congressional delegation unanimously supports this bill.

For additional information and other ways to help, please visit www.trinitydownwinders.com.

Thank you to Sala Events Center and the Los Alamos Arts Council for hosting documentaries dealing with these tough issues. Regardless of how you feel about LANL’s current mission, or the Manhatten Project itself, I highly recommend seeing First We Bombed New Mexico, which is currently playing along with many other excellent films as part of the Oppenheimer Festival at Sala, as well as Richland, a film hosted recently by the Los Alamos Arts Council and the Manhatten Project National Historical Park. These local businesses and entities deserve our support.