atomic farmer is a well-written account of the life of a downwinders family and their neighbors in the Palouse Hills, eastern Washington state. ON wind down is a person who lived in the area where iodine-131, nuclear waste from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, was released in the late 1940s through the 1950s. After the passage of the Freedom of Information Act and the Spokesperson Review began researching the launches and comparing them to wind patterns, this information became available to the general population.
This downwinders The story is open, honest, and full of great examples of character development. The author, Teri Hein, paints a picture of life in the farming communities of a small town in Eastern Washington. She covers the hills, harvest time, wheat, Steptoe Butte, loess, bird hunting, small schools, churches, football, basketball, baseball, parades, horses and the list goes on. : Joyful memories of growing up in a small farming community. However, an impending betrayal began to emerge. First her father, then a neighbor boy, another childhood friend, a neighbor mother, and the list grew over two decades. These people, the ones she knew most closely, began to get sick and most died. They got thyroid disease or cancer in one of its many forms: leukemia, lupus, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and more. Eventually, Teri realized that something unique and sinister was happening in her neighborhood, as seven of the ten farm families within a square mile had contracted the diseases. In most of those families there were several members with thyroid disease or cancer. Her book covers the lives of those victims.
Like Teri, I grew up in one of these small towns: Oakesdale, just 25 miles southwest of Teri’s beloved Fairfield. If you draw a 100-mile line between the Hanford and Fairfield site, Oakesdale will be crossed by that line, a line that also represents the prevailing winds from the southwest. The experience of my neighborhood is consistent with that of Teri’s neighborhood.
One cold winter morning in the mid-fifties we woke up to a layer of freshly fallen snow. It was dotted with beautiful pink spots like a miracle, but it was not from nature or from heaven. I believe it was one of many releases of radioactive toxins from the Hanford Nuclear Stockpile. We played in that snow, made snow angels and snowmen. Within a year, my closest neighbors, Tom Crossett and Ray Ebert, developed thyroid disease. Subsequently, Tom’s sister Suzy Crossett, my cousin Susan Gregory, Tom’s closest friends Danny Horn and Mike Lamb, my closest friend John Rogers, and three of the four Byrum brothers all died of cancer, long before they died. weather. Consequently, Teri’s story is deeply moving for me. Although I knew some of her older friends, I never met Teri Hein, but I feel like I’ve known her my whole life. Teri opens her soul to the world and exposes every nerve.
I highly recommend it Atomic Farmgirl: Growing up in the wrong place. Everyone should be aware of this tragedy.