Commentary: The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) has completed its Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on the effects of July 16, 1945, Trinity Test on New Mexicans and the potential benefits of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) amendments for the residents of the Tularosa Basin.
The HIA report will be released the week of February 6, 2017, at the events listed below.
The report can also be accessed at www.trinitydownwinders.com/health-impact-assessment after the release events.
February 10, 2017, Friday, at 6 pm
Tularosa Community Center
1050 Bookout Rd.
February 11, 2017, Saturday at 12 noon
Socorro Youth Center
1002 Ake Blvd.
February 15, 2017, Wednesday, at 6 pm
Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center
202 Harvard Dr SE
Albuquerque NM 87106
RECA, a federal law passed by United States Congress in 1990, awarded financial reparations to
Nevada Test Site Downwinders, on-site test participants during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, and uranium miners and millers who developed cancer and/or other specific illnesses as a result of radioactive fallout or radon gasses to which they were exposed.
Trinity Test downwinders in New Mexico were not included in the original Act, nor were they included in year 2000 amendments to the Act.
Residents of southern New Mexico, in particular, have historically present and experienced high levels of cancer and other illnesses since the 1945 test – the first atmospheric nuclear test ever to have taken place in the world.
Currently, proposed Congressional bills would include New Mexico and potentially award Trinity downwinders reparations to account for their unknowing and unwilling participation as bystanders to the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945.
Discussions on the status of RECA, since its inception, have been focused heavily on the financial and economic benefits (and disadvantages) of the RECA program with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Constitutional and Specialized Tort Litigation section.
In the fall 2015, the TBDC began work with the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, an initiative of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, to research the impact that an amended RECA would have on the public health of New Mexicans and how it would also impact the health of the affected communities. For more information, contact
Tina Cordova @ info@trinitydownwinders.com or www.trinitydownwinders.com
phone (505) 897-6787, FAX (505) 890-0157 or tcordova@queston.net