TULAROSA, N.M. —The nuclear bomb is a weapon credited with helping win World War II, but some people see it differently.
“Trinity killed a lot of people, and it’s still killing people, and it’s going to kill people for a long, long time,” said Tularosa resident Livia Landrum.
She’s part of a group called the “Downwinders” named as such because they lived down wind of the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb test was conducted in 1945.They protested outside of the landmark, claiming generations of their families have suffered from cancer ever since the testing took place.
“I’m a thyroid cancer survivor and the first question they asked me was, ‘When were you exposed to radiation?'” said Tularosa resident Tina Cordova.
The federal government is not compensating any of these families for their illnesses.
Jacob Olascoaga was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 11 years old.
“People just passed away too early in their time and I don’t feel like it’s fair,” he said. “It’s not fair at all.”
Currently, the government compensates uranium miners and test site employees who got sick from radiation exposure, but when it comes to civilians, right now, only a handful of communities near test sites in Utah, Nevada and Arizona are getting money.
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