When the Atomic Energy Commission conducted above-ground tests at the Nevada Test Site, it often waited until winds were blowing to the north or east, as officials wanted to avoid carrying fallout over a large population such as Las Vegas. In the minds of many government officials, the land was worthless desert. However, though the downwind area's population density wasn't high, it wasn't unoccupied. Thousands lived downwind, and the clouds of radioactive fallout that floated over their homes and sometimes settled in their tissues and organs devastated families and communities. Furthermore, winds didn't stop at the edge of the desert; they pushed clouds laden with radioactive particles all the way across the continental United States. Read the newspaper articles below. What measures did the government take in the 1950s to prevent downwinders from being contaminated by nuclear fallout?
The oral histories below offer a raw, human side of nuclear testing. Marcell and Zenna Mae Bridges lived in Salt Lake City, Utah during the 1950s and lost one of their children to cancer they suspect was caused by fallout. Patricia George and Virginia Sanchez are Shoshone Indians who lived downwind of blasts and also watched several family members succumb to cancer.
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