Studies the political, legal, social, medical, engineering and ethical problems that emerged when American leaders developed a nuclear arsenal to contain the USSR without considering the potential cost in innocent lives; intended for medical and public health personnel, policy-makers and others.
Über den Autor
HOWARD BALL, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Vermont, has written at length on public policy questions. His books include Of Power and Right (1992), We Have a Duty: The Watergate Tapes Litigation (Greenwood, 1990), Controlling Regulatory Sprawl: Presidential Strategies from Nixon to Reagan (Greenwood, 1984) and Justice Downwind: The American Atomic Testing Program in the 1950s (1988), among others.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Preface
The Context; America in the Post-War Years
Mining Uranium: National Policies, Uranium and the Etiology of the Cancers in the Uranium Miners
The Pact with the Devil: U.S. PHS Studies and Medical Analyses, 1950-Present
The Health Consequences and the Legal Battles: Begay v. United States (1984) and Barnson v. United States (1985)
The Politics of Radioactivity in Congress: The 1990 Compensatory Legislation
The Uranium Miners' Experience Viewed in a Comparative Context
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index
Klappentext
For the first time, the sad story of America's uranium miners and the duplicity of our government is revealed. This expert study examines, in microcosm, the political, legal, social, medical, engineering, and ethical problems that emerged when American leaders developed a nuclear arsenal to contain the Soviet Union without considering the cost this could have on innocent lives. Medical and public health personnel, policymakers and political scientists, lawyers and legal historians, and citizen watchdogs will find this account illuminating.
Ball provides the context in the 1940s and 1950s for understanding the Communist hysteria that swept the country and led policymakers to develop risky nuclear technology and to engage in uranium mining and production while assuring Navajo and Mormon miners of their safety. The study analyzes the medical consequences and the etiology of cancer among miners, the politics behind radioactive policy, the miners' long legal battles, and compensatory legislation in 1990. An appendix provides a federal report about three decades of radiation experiences on U.S. citizens. A bibliography points to primary and secondary source material of note.
