FORMER Rep. Crispin M. Ogo is urging the Legislature to adopt a joint calling for the inclusion of the CNMI in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act or RECA.
The law provides for the monetary compensation of people, including atomic veterans, who contracted cancer and a number of other specified diseases as a direct result of their exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing undertaken by the U.S. during the Cold War, or their exposure to radon gas and other radioactive isotopes while undertaking uranium mining, milling or the transportation of ore.
S. 2798, a U.S. Senate bill that would amend RECA, only lists Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Guam as the “affected states.”
In his letter to Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider and Speaker Edmund Villagomez, Ogo strongly urged their expedient action on this matter so that the CNMI could also receive compensation as “downwinders” from the 67 U.S. military nuclear detonations in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1962.
Ogo said the cancers that may have been caused by radioactive fallout include bile duct cancer, bladder cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer and leukemia.
“Why are we developing cancer? This may be one of the reasons,” Ogo said.
He added that the Legislature should adopt a joint resolution addressed to U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that is now reviewing S. 2798.
