It was the late 1970s when the term “downwinders,” gained prominence. Initially, it referred to people who lived not far from nuclear test sites in Nevada. But in time, it included countless more people who lived in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Beginning in the mid 1950s and continuing to the early 1960s, families and their heir may have been exposed to radioactive contamination. In the past few decades, downwinders – and particularly those who were diagnosed with cancer – have had to fight, first for recognition and then for some kind of compensation for being innocent victims to a government’s reckless experimentation.
In 2025, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), was authorized to expand its coverage to Idahoans who lived in the state between Jan. 21, 1951 and Nov. 6, 1962 and who developed certain cancers…