60 Years Later
The public, though not very noticeable up close, was adversely impacted by nuclear experimentation. By analyzing the results of thousands of atomic bomb tests, common short-term human ailments were “sore eyes” (Paul Rubinson, Crucified on a Cross of Atoms), blotchy skin, burns, skin lesions, and sickness. These symptoms usually went away after a couple of days, and the people who experienced them were told that they had “nothing to worry about”. However, when thousands of teeth from the Baby Tooth Survey were found in storage at Washington University in the early 2000’s, a follow-up study concluded that the children who died before the age of 50 had levels of strontium-90 in their bones that were fifty times as much as those who were still living (Joni Praded, Glowing in the Dark). Almost everyone around the world experienced some kind of low-level exposure. Inhabitants of Bikini Atoll often had trouble reproducing when they were moved back to the island between 1968 and 1978. Thousands of citizens have been compensated for contracting diseases such as cancer for proving that their illnesses were caused by the tests. Even today, we all have traces of radioactivity left over from the Nuclear Age. The remnants of nuclear testing will remain among us for thousands of years, and could very possibly outlive the human race.