The "downwinders," the people who were unknowingly irradiated because of nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and '60s, already have been forced to bear more than their share of tragedy.

Now, despite thousands of affected people having yet to be compensated for their related illnesses and the deaths of loved ones, organizations and government agencies want to pull the plug on further health studies.

It's an example of the federal government tossing aside its own citizens for a second time: first by not telling the truth about the potential dangers associated with nuclear explosions, and now because of the possible elimination of health studies.

By some estimates, the fallout from the Nevada Test Site in Southern Nevada has been linked to 11,000 cancer deaths. And that is probably a conservative guess because among the people exposed to the radiation, 40 million have died because of cancer.

To think that .03 percent of those were all that were affected by the fallout is preposterous, especially given the government's track record on telling the truth about this subject.

This is a case where the federal government, during an arms race, cast aside some of its residents by conducting above-ground nuclear tests. The wind carried the bulk of the radiation to Southern Utah, Southern Nevada and Northern Arizona. Residents in those areas at the time of the tests reported what they believed to be an abnormal number of incidents of cancer, birth defects and other diseases.

That was from 1951 to 1962. It took the government until 1990 to pass a compensation act. And despite actions taken to expand the eligibility requirements, relatively few irradiated residents have been compensated for even a fraction of the anguish they have had to endure.

If there is one bright spot, it is that the National Academies of Science did recommend rescreeening participants in a thyroid disease study. The hope is that research from the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster will provide more insight into the illnesses faced by the downwinders of the 1950s and 1960s.

But that doesn't go far enough. Potentially hundreds of thousands of people were harmed by nuclear tests.

If the government pulls the plug on further health studies, it is turning its back once again on victims harmed by their own government.

Originally published Friday, February 14, 2003