latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information. plus a variety of podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. c-span your front row seat to anytime anywhere. a healthy democracy does not does not like this. it looks like this where people can see democracy at work. a republic thriving. she's, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. this is what democracy looks like, c-span, powered by cable. .

she's a downwinder and victim advocate for -- talking about the radiation exposure compensation act. welcome to the program. guest: thank you. a pleasure to be here. host: first explain what is a downwinder, and your personal connection to this. guest: i would love to. a downwinder is someone who lives downwind of the nevada nuclear test site. you still th? we having trouble with your signal? mary? we will work on that. and try to get that back for you here as soon as possible. take a look at this is from the department of justice website. this is talking about the radiation exposure act, exposure compensation act is called reca and here is a map that i wanted

to show you. if you see here the states that are in yellow, these yellow areas are for uranium worker states. so states where there are uranium workers. those cover colorado, new mexico, arizona, wyoming, south dakota, washington, utah, idaho, north dakota, oregon, and texas. what's in green is overlapping uranium worker states and downwind counties. here you can see the blue is the downwind counties. where you are seeing blue and green are counties covered by downwind. and then the green is overlap. and then if you are to look here, you can see -- hard to read. here are the actual counties of

downwind areas. it looks like mary's back. are you there? guest: i'm back. can you hear me? host: go right ai head. you were talking about downwinders and your personal connection. guest: sure. a downwinder is someone affected by radioactive fallout from nuclear testing in the nevada test site. testing there started in 1951. it lasted until 1992. there were 928 nuclear tests there. those tests would have fallout that went across the country. carried by the jetstream. the west was heavily, heavily impacted. my state, utah, was heavily impacted. so the fallout would collide with rain, snow, sleet, or hail and fall to the ground. where it became part of the ecosystem and then became part of what worked its way into our

bodies. it's kind of a silent poison that we have stored. i, myself, have thyroid cancer when i was in my 20's. i had my thyroid removed. i had lymph nodes removed. years later i also had other tumors that resulted in a complete hysterectomy. my older sister died at age 46. leaving three children. my younger sister has stomach cancer. another has autoimmune disorders. the area we grew up in in salt lake city, we counted 64 people who developed various cancers, tumors, auto immune disorders. and my story is not an unusual one in the west. especially in the surrounding states. my state. we became what we call casualty to the cold war. we have never been fully compensated.

we have suffered. we continue to suffer. i have watched so many people die. i have lost so many people. all the people i worked with in utah on this issue for years. have all died. i'm the only one left. when one of my friends died, she said, i need you to keep doing this work. she said you got better. and i have felt an enormous responsibility all these years, which is why i have been working on this for the last 30, 35 years at least. host: mary, clearly you have suffered as many people have. but how do you know that these horrible diseases are directly linked to those nuclear tests that krauseed by those nuclear tests? caused by those nuclear tests? guest: that's a good question. because you can never definitively prove any one cancer was caused by any one thing. the statistical probability is

very high. we know from studies conducted by the national cancer institute in signed sin serio we are leaving this coverage to head to the u.s. house gaveling back into session. the yeas and nays on the question of reconsideration of the vote on adoption of house resolution 712 be vacated to the end of that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york arise? >> i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourn today it adjourn to meet at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. langworthy: i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye.

those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands ted measurements of milk showing the iodine 131 in the milk and said that 55,000 children in my state, that's just my state, would likely get sick. there were other -- i don't know if you heard about the baby tooth study. back in the 1950's will there was a female physician in st. louis worried about the milk. that's absorbed by the bones and keeps radiating. she started collecting baby teeth and they ended up with this 35eu7b, donate your teeth to science, that collected about

350,000 baby teeth, which is lost their teeth, not just her area but elsewhere. there is a study being done right now with a gentleman out of the radiation and public health project, with harvard university to look at the health impacts of those surviving kids because they kept track of every tooth. there's been a lot of studies. there was a study out of princeton just this july it was released that mapped where fallout from the very first test showed it went to 46 states. and i have talked to people, i hear stories constantly, heartbreaking stories. i was just in d.c. lobbying with a lot of these people treated downwinders. there were people who lived by that site, 40 miles away. one gentleman was 40 miles away. he talked about all the people

in his family who had cancer. about the babies who would die. the numbers were very high. his church took record of that. i have talked to people around different states who have been affected. people in guam were affected because of our testing in the pacific. fallout has lethal, lethal consequences. and there is enormous rich began in the early 1900's and went on. it wasn't just the people in the downwind fallout. all along that nuclear chain there-v has been a trail of death and devastation. the miners who mined the uranium orr. they were sent down there without protection or gear. it has been study. people who worked at the test

site were also seeing the same diseases. our stories, it's amazing when i talked to all these other people how much we all have in common. host: sorry to interrupt. just want to let viewers know that they can call in and ask you a question. make a comment. our lines are by region. so if you are in the eastern or central time zones, it's 202-748-8,000. mountain or pacific, 202-748-8001. and our line for those that are in the downwinder areas, call us on 202-748-8002. mary, you said the government knew about these health effects from long ago. what were you told at the time the residents of those areas, and how did you feel about -- guest: they actually printed booklets that told us we were participants in a very important gram. and in my mind i never forgot

was, many of you are hearing reports of geiger counters going crazy these days. don't let them bother you. we were given booklets basically saying there is no danger when they knew from the very beginning that it wasn't safe. in fact, when they moved testing from the pacific to the u.s., they were warned that if they put it in nevada that the wind in our country throws to the east and it would spread across the country. in the name of convenience and expediency they chose the testify testify test -- chose the nevada test site. it was a low-use segment of the population. fallout spreads. it blows with the wind. if you saw smoke from fires from where you lived this summer, or last summer, that's what you can see. you don't always see the radiation. host: as radiation exposure compensation act was signs into law in 1990.

what does it do? guest: if you live in certain counties in utah, arizona, and nevada, they were largely rural counties, and could prove you lived there during certain years and got certain cancers, you could apply for compensation. -if you were a uranium miner who worked before 1971 you could apply. the program was always flawed. it never went far enough. it was a lifeline for so many people. i talked to some those people who said they never could have managed medical bills without it. still, many people were bankrupted. and many people had no recourse at all. it was an important act. it was called compassionate payment by george h.w. bush who signed it into law. it has not gone far enough. host: when you say compensation. how much are we talking about?

or are all the bills covered? guest: this is the thing. if you are a downwinder, $50,000. if you were a test site worker, $75,000. a uranium miner or worker it was $100,000. which if you think about it, $50,000, that doesn't even cover the cost of the chemo treatment. it was a small amount. it was helpful. but it certainly didn't cover your treatment. i have to say it certainly didn't make up for the lives of those that we lost. we have buried and mourn the dead. we comforted and advocated for the living. with each ache, pain, and lump we are getting sick again. i would say my sister's life was certainly worth more than $50,000. host: how hard is it to put in a claim? what do you have to prove, what do you have to show? what happens if you get denied? guest: ok. good question. because not everyone who applies

gets the compensation. you have to prove that you lived in the areas that are approved during the years of 1951 to 1958 or the summer of 1962. if you were a child then, you don't have mortgage payments to show. and it's hard to prove. if were you a uranium worker. many were on tribal lands, where they don't have access to health care. they don't necessarily keep the records, it's very hard to prove you were there. it's also very hard to prove you had those diseases. as i said, there often has to travel like three hours for medical care. they don't have what they need to show they have those diseases. i kept medical records because i keep things for myself. but if you don't have them it's hard to get.

you don't automatically get it because you say i live there. i was there. i had this disease. host: start talking to viewers, mary. tina is first. a downwinder in albuquerque, new mexico. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. go right ahead. caller: my name is tina. i live in new mexico. i am like mary, a downwinder. i'm just like mary in many ways actually, because i have thyroid cancer as well. and i grew up in a community that was 45 miles away. the crows fly from the treupbity test site -- trinity test site. we were people that lived off the land and ash fell from the sky after the trinity test contaminating everything. and my family has an extensive history of cancer. i lost my dad to cancer. my grandmothers had cancer. my grandfathers. i have lost countless aunts, uncles, cousins, friends just like mary. i have a question for mary.

i now have a 23-year-old niece that has thyroid cancer. we are seeing a lot of that in new mexico where this is producing four or five generations. and we are seeing younger children get sick all the time. and for us, because it's rural, we don't have access to health care easily. it really takes everything we have to address this. we go into great debt and it takes a horrible, emotional, psychological, and then financial toll on our families. i guess my question for mary is, if she's seeing these sorts of things, too, where we are having four and five generations of cancer and no help from the government whatsoever. host: go ahead. guest: yeah, tina. i am so sorry for your losses. i know. you are like a sister.

it is incredibly hard on families. it's not just getting sick. it's everything else you describe. and this is what's really sad. if tina, because they were downwinders, of trinity, her family was never compensated. they weren't included in reca. and they were the first ones to suffer the bomb. they also, by the way, got the fallout from testing in nevada. so this were double victims. under this new reca we expanded reca. this part now is the national defense authorization act in the senate, but must go through the house t. would add the -- house, it would add the trinity downwinders who have been forgotten all these years. it would add not only all of utah, all of new mexico, all of nevada, but other states. you've got arizona, colorado,

idaho, montana, and new mexico, as well as guam. it would increase who was eligible for this. and it would give them some measure of help t would raise that amendment, which believe me is not enough on a scale of a level to $150,000 uniformly across miners, workers, and downwinders. host: crockett, texas, billy. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all i want to commend c-span because you all do a great job of letting people speak. what we need to do now with all the divisions and problems we have in america is just be more open and public about how we express things. and we've got a great president and that's what i like about him. when trump administrationp -- trump was president, we had covid-19 and that spread and did devastation. i'll also say this we are a nation of god.

i'm one of god's sons and i can till as long as we stay under god we are going to be defeat our diseases. we have people speaking out, like our president. we are going to be defend america. thank you again, c-span, god bless you all. host: reca was set to expire last year. president biden extended the filing deadline to july of 2024. what's going on with that? guest: yes. that's why we feel a special urgency because the entire program will expire at the end of next june if something doesn't happen. we need to extend it. we need to expand it. and we are right now closer than we have ever been. it was a real moment. interestingly it was senator josh hawley of missouri who got this put into the ndaa. because there are people in his state who were made sick by

nuclear waste from the manhattan project that's been stored there. they had to close the school down. it's gotten into cold creek. when that creek flooded it went into their homes. uranium, let me tell you, that's got half life, thousands of years. thousands of years. he got that amendment in. senator ben ray lujan of new mexico has been a true champion all these years. he was a sponsor of that bill as was senator mike crapo of idaho. this is a bipartisan effort. it's strongly bipartisan. let's face it. it didn't just affect red or blue states, republicans or tkefplts it affected everybody. this is a real human issue and something i think would be easy for people to get behind of when your government harms you, they have a moral obligation to help take care of you. host: collette is a downwinder in oregon. good morning.

caller: good morning. is it me? host: yes, it's you. go ahead. caller: i have a girlfriend that her father was an indian agent. hanford nuclear power plant. she ended up with thyroid cancer. they grabbed her right away and she was treated at hanford. come to find out all the girls in puberty at that time, the indian girls, got thyroid cancer. and hanford nuclear power plant is near the columbia river. it is seeping uranium towards the river. it scares us. i was raised and we are considered downwinders from hanford. i notice that wasn't on your map. i wondered why.

guest: good question. we have wondered that. when you look at how many people were affected in the production, it was plutonium they were manufacturing there in hanford. it is awfully close to the columbia river. they are downwinders. i know people there who have thyroid cancer. i have become friends with. i have to say that the act doesn't still go far enough. if we get to the next level we can have it amended. so many people have been affected by nuclear weapons. the radiation from that, the fallout, in the manufacturing, in the waste storage. we would look at the numbers of people whose lives have been destroyed. it's incredibly sad. i don't know if you all saw the movie, "oppenhimer." at the end when oppenhimer says to einstein, we worry we might

destroy the world. and einstein says, and? and oppenhimer says, i believe we did. i know for a lot of us it has destroyed our worlds. it has destroyed our worlds. and a government that did this must take responsibility. if you believe nuclear weapons are part of our descent, then part of that cost is the human cost. and that's all of us who were the casualties of that. host: kevin is in maine, a downwinder. caller: hello. i am overwhelmed with today's program. i almost didn't watch this segment, and i'm looking at this woman looking like an angel with this information i have been

trying to get at for years. and it revolves around i was watching a pbs documentary on uranium. and chernobyl. but it mentioned a nuclear test in 1963, april, 1963, that also bigger than they expected and it sent an enormous amount of debris into the atmosphere, higher than they expected, and it drifted peacefully across the continent, but just before it went off into the atlantic, it got swept up into large storm front that dumped -- this is amazing. my hometown, troy, new york, it's documented, the physics professors opening up a

university civics department that morning were fascinated with the fact that every geiger counter in the room was pegged and crackling. that's the beginning of the story. the story goes on and i was born september, 1954. and i played on fields. my face was in the dirt. soccer, football, baseball. everything. our playgrounds all over that area were saturated. and we didn't know a thing about it. and we lived there. bring it to today. i have been trying to be in touch with people i went to school with. half of them died. half of my grammar school class

died years ago of different cultures. my mother died after breast cancer in the 1960's. my father died in 1962 with colon cancer. my brothers had prostate cancer. also my sister has always had problems with her endough christians -- endocrins. help me get information. guest: i am so sorry. i am very aware of that story with troy. they knew at the time that it was a testing assignment. they knew it fell out because it tracked it down to nevada and the test there, as you said, it kwhraoeuded with one of the worst thunderstorms -- collided with one of the worst thunderstorms in 100 years and fell out over your area. they measured it. there was a man who wrote a

book, a good day has no rain. it chronicles that story that shows up in a lot of places. you are definitely downwinders. you were. host: mary, is there a website people can go to? where can they get help if they think they have been affected and they want to get help? guest: i would send to you a website that's called expandreca.rog. there are all sorts of places to look if they want to look at the forms for filing they can go to the department of justice website and type in reca. google reca. it will come. i would say what we have to do is keep telling these stories. to me the most important thing are these stories. because we are the lived experience. we have lived this. we have suffered with it. and i always tell people, raise your voice. you need to organize. you need to say we need help,

too. we should be covered in this. there is good evidence for troy for your area. good evidence. it was tragic. there is another excellent book i recommend for people called, "the u.s. --" the u.s. atlas and nuclear fallout." also "under the cloud" the dekes of nuclear testing. his books by volumes shows how much each county got and ranks them. i would recommend that to people. as you can see to me this is a national tragedy. it's a catastrophe. and people in our country aren't taught this. they don't know about this. they are stunned when we start telling them that a lot of the victims of nuclear weapons are right here in the united states. the other sad thing for me is the half life of these radio

nuclides is thousands of years. we are still living with this. the d.n.a. damage can be passed down. we are seeing, tina told us earlier, other generations being affected. it doesn't end. it has no ended. it's not a story of our past. we are still living in. host: leon next in madisonville, tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go right ahead. caller: a nuclear plant for 34 years i worked at, been exposed to radiation. and took me 18 years to get the white card from the department of labor to get approved on skin cancer. i was wondering if she's an

advocate for people that need help. i wonder if -- host: you mean for skin cancer, leon? caller: i have skin cancer. host: is that included, mary? guest: i believe it is. i believe that's one that is. i have to look. you can look on the reca website. but, yeah, there was a lot of work going on with manufacture in tennessee. oak ridge. one thing missing was surprising to me there was a researcher at william and mary who took honey samples. and he found something in the honey in tennessee, a sam in tennessee from the nuclear tests. it gets into our ecosystem. the biosphere.

and it's still there. as a worker, you were very close to it. host: sharon is in albany, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i remember hearing the story of leaking underground storage tanks. where nuclear waste was being stored in these underground tanks, and the tanks were leaking. and there was question as to how to contain them. and i'm wondering if this has had any impact on some of the cases that are being seen. is there a plum extending from these tanks out to different places. thank you. guest: a very good question. nuclear waste storage is also a huge problem.

and you will see incidences of cancer diseases going up around those plants. when it leaks, it gets into the ground. it gets into the ground water. it's incredibly hard to safely store it. it's a very difficult, difficult thing. nuclear waste is not safe. from testing in the martial islands, they -- marshall islands, they put a lot of that waste under a huge concrete dome very near the water. they are developing cracks in that dome. and once that's out, it goes into the ocean. they are not quite sure what to do with it. we are faced with this toxic, toxic material no matter what form it exposes people through that once it's there it's very hard to control it and to safely contain it. it's, again, i find this

absolutely tragic. host: talk to anthony in brooklyn, new york. good morning. caller: yes. host: go ahead, anthony. caller: thank you. first of all i'm sorry to hear of the cancer that you have. also i myself i have cancer, ok. and i was misdiagnosed, unfortunately. other family, person in my family, that had it. in your situation i was misdiagnosed. in your situation they did have an autoimmune disorder for

years. so a few of them -- they had lupus. and chronic fatigue syndrome which i believe you already know this, i believe that is from thm exposure of all of those can be used from the radiation. am i right? guest: i think they are finding more and more as they look into it it wasn't just cancer caused by radiation exposure. it's other things. autoimmune diseases. my sister, one of my sisters, has that chronic fatigue syndrome. so when you look at what radiation can do, they still have not done enough studies on this. which is one thing i have always thought was a huge -- it was a huge glitch on the part of the government that they have not done the studies that need to be

done. and that, i think, is a shame. we need more studies because, as you know, science demands evidence. i always say our evidence is also in our bodies. they want the hard facts, too. but they are showing more and more that it also caused -- causes autoimmune disorders. you have disrupted the immune system essentially with this exposure. there are people who say no level of radiation exposure is safe. so you look at it, way back they were telling people that it was good for them. science continues to learn more. people are looking into more things. and we can just hope that that continues. and that it gets funded because we have not done a good job of looking into everything that this causes. host: we are taking your calls

for about the next seven minutes or so on this program, this topic. our lines by region. if you are in eastern, central time zones it's 202-748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones it's 202-748-8001. if you are a downwinder, a separate line for you, that's 202-74le 8-8002. joseph is next in williamsport, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i don't know what to say. all i can say i have a scientific background and radiation is a -- what shall we call it. pet peeve is not a good word. do you understand me? host: keep going. go right ahead. caller: i know there's spent a lot of time and i appreciate you taking my call. but i am so thrilled that c-span

does what it does. let's put it that way. more people should listen and more people should do things about things like you are bringing forth there on the program. so there it's a little p.r. for c-span. take it on to the radiation. i would ask you, because i don't know, how much those of us like myself, who have been irratated -- irradiated with thoracic, i'm going to use scientific words now and i hope you pardon me, because i like to show off. that's why i'm on the program. i'm not just showing off, i want to warn people about radiation. if i get nothing else said than that, i know you have other people calling in with maybe some horrible stories. mine, i am -- thank god, spared,

of any dilatorious effects. every time i got whenever i go to the dentist and i hear the story, oh, it's only as much as, you know, if you were flying -- and all these excuses for the -- host: let's get a response. mary, what are your thoughts on radiation from other sources? guest: we do get it from other sources. what i would say is, all radiation that comes additive and cumulative. so it adds to your body burden of radiation, x-rays, c.t. scans, all of them adds to what you get. so cumulative exposure is a problem. and i know i've had so many c. t-frpt scans as -- c.t. scans as part of my treatment and to make sure it wasn't there.

and then from other complications i developed, that's how they found it. so i mean, they serve a purpose. but it adds to your exposure. you know, in japan they have a card for when you go and have x-rays, radiation, scans that they keep track of it. so you know how much you're getting and what your cumulative exposure has been. we don't have anything like that in the united states. and i thought, i wish i had that. so i would know what else i've received from different procedures. and, yes, they are important to diagnose and they diagnosed some things for me to save my life, but it does add up. and i would say, just the nuclear testing aspect of it, you think about one bomb and the exposure, but think about this. there were 100 above-ground tests at the nevada test site.

that's atmospheric. 100. that means you were exposed repeatedly if you were downwind of those. so it's not a good thing. and not everyone, though, who is exposed will end up getting sick and we have no idea why one person stands under the same clouds of fallout or drinking the same radiated milk will get cancer and the person next to them won't. you know, we don't know what -- why that is. but that is how it is. but i thank you for your question. host: let's try to get one more call in. george in hillsborough, ohio. go ahead, george. caller: yes. in 1973, i was at a meeting of government officials that came down to ohio to tell us they were going to put a nuclear dump

in near my farm. and where i grew up. and they went ahead and did this. we complained, we said, we don't want it. pu they said -- but they said, we're going to put it in there anyway. the community, we were at a meeting. so they went ahead and put it in. and since then it's tons and tons of barrels of plow to um were buried -- pleau to eupwere bureau -- plutonium were buried in a soybean field with a mound over it. in marathon, ohio, most of the kids have bone cancer. i've complained for years to the government to come back and clean it up because they said it was temporary. they've never done anything to clean this site up. and it affects cincinnati, columbus, hillsborough and all the towns around. and i have thyroid disease, skin

cancer, and a number of things. i also lived in arizona, new mexico and colorado for about 25 years, way back when. host: we'll get a quick response. mary? guest: i'm so sorry for that. there are so many nuclear waste sites around the country that have not been remediated. i know on tribal lands there are still uranium mines that are open, that have not been remediated. kids play around that. this has also been a problem. i always tell people, you know, organize. organize. talk to your officials. call your congressman. because you have a right to be heard. you have a right to be safe. and that's what i would tell you. i know this radiation exposure compensation act should come

through the house, when in conferencing as part of the national defense authorization act, will help a lot of people. but there will still be work that can be done. i mean, it's an evolving sort of thing. i would say call your congressman, ask them to support this. tell them, you know, this is not an expense, this is a recompence. the government has, again, a moral responsibility to be forthcoming and honest with its citizens and to take care of those who have been harmed. host: all right, mary dickson, a down-winder and a victim advocate. you can find out more at expandrica.org. thank you so much for joining us >> washington journal live form involving you to discuss the latest issues in government,

politics, and public policy.

saturday morning we will look at the impact of the ncaa policy changes regarding the name, image, and likeness of college athletes and their compensation. then the executive director of the institute of policy and politics talks about the findings of the recent survey focusing on young americans perspectives on politics, community engagement, and public service. washington journal, join in the conversation live at 7:00 eastern saturday morning. ♪ monday watch the new series in partnership with the library of congress books that shaped america. we will feature the federalist, a compilation of essays written 1787 and 1788. urging for the ratification of the newly drafted u.s. constitution. a judge and director for graduate studies at arizona state university will be our guests to discuss why the essays are considered one of the most important references for interpreting and understanding the original intent of the constitution. watch monday live at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast where you can learn more about the authors of the book featured.

on thursday the house oversight and accountability committee will hold its first hearing on impeachment inquiry into president biden. also a subcommittee holds a hearing on the recent fires in maui. watch next week live on the c-span networks or on c-span now, our free mobile video app. also head-on to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on-demand anytime. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. full funding provided by these television companies and more.

charter has invested billions upgrading infrastructure, empowering technology in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. charter communications supports c-span aa public service along with these other television providers giving you a front-row at to democracy. a georgia democratic congresswoman joined the white house press secretary today. >