By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors continues its effort to lobby both houses of Congress for inclusion of Guam in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program.
PARS president Robert Celestial submitted a new draft RECA bill to Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo and Guam delegate Madeleine Bordallo during the Fallout Compensation Expansion Conference Set for Boise Idaho.
PARS’ draft bill was similar to the one introduced by Bordallo in the last Congress, in which Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana also introduced the same legislation on behalf of Montana residents sickened by Nevada’s nuclear tests in the 1950s. The Republican-led Congress adjourned without acting on the RECA bills.
At the Jan. 28 Idaho conference organized by the Idaho Downwinders group, Celestial and PARS vice president Tony Taitingfong hand-delivered to Crapo a letter from Gov. Felix P. Camacho and Lt. Gov. Mike Cruz, “asking for support to include to include Guam in the bill when then they reintroduce it in Congress next month.”
“We met with all members of the group and they were thankful that we came all the way from Guam. They noted that Guam has one thing in common with Idaho and Montana—we are all downwinders,” Celestial said.
“We agreed that Idaho, Montana and Guam should be part of the RECA program and must receive health benefits and compensations granted to all downwinders,” Celestial said.
A report released two years ago by the Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program upheld Guam’s eligibility to receive compensation under RECA, citing the island residents’ exposure to radiation fallout resulting from U.S.’s nuclear tests in the Pacific in the 1950s.
The RECA program has two components—one covers compensation for “downwinders” or those who were exposed to radiation fallout, and the other for “onsite participants,” or those who worked in areas where ships were decontaminated and those who mined and milled uranium for the nuclear weapons program.