Downwinders Responds to Release of NCI Fallout Report

"Genocide has no statute of limitations! What else can you call willfully, and knowingly exposing your own population to radioactive agents that can sicken and kill them? We demand - and expect - criminal indictments", Downwinders' Director J Truman stated today regarding the long awaited release of the National Cancer Institute's report on the effects of radioactive fallout from cold war atomic testing. Many radiation victims' and anti-nuclear groups expressed shock and called for hearings and more drawn out government health studies but Downwinders (the West's oldest radiation survivor's group, founded by those first to experience the horrible legacy of Nevada nuclear tests) pulled no punches responding to today's release of the National Cancer Institute study on fallout-induced cancer.

Downwinders also called for a Presidential confession and apology for the deliberate harm inflicted on unsuspecting, patriotic Americans and their childern under the guise of Cold War necessity. "Our government knew damn well what they were doing and what the consequences would be when they exploded the bombs. The lies they told to protect their own self-interests, and to keep on testing, should be proof enough. It is time we as a nation stop making excuses for them, and time to call it what it is. Let's admit it, identify the guilty, provide help and comfort for the injuried, and move on," Truman emphasized.

Truman said that the NCI study, which was 14 years in the making and found up to 75,000 thyroid cancers caused by radioactive iodine in atomic fallout, was nothing more that a rehash of old news known to anyone who grew up in West, or paid attention to the issue. "What would be news would be an accounting of the cancers and deaths from the other 359 radioactive isotopes released along with the iodine.", he stated.

"There's no scoop here", Truman said. "[Westerners] have been supporting the sick and burying the dead for 46 years, while listening to the chorus of "there is no danger" and "scientific weak links" raining down from Washington, D.C, in a brand of fallout all its own. We don't want or need any more studies to see if anybody got hurt. We are all cold war veterans and should qualify for federal assistance. An apology and some criminal charges are in order. Anything less only opens the door for such things to happen again -- they will have gotten away with it." Truman said.

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More information can be obtained on Downwinders' website at http://www.downwinders.org

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