Socorro Downwinders: ‘We are finally getting recognized’

Eighty years ago, the first nuclear weapon was tested, without any warning of potential negative impacts to New Mexico residents. The full extent of the health damage to “Downwinders” of the Trinity Site may never be known, but the fight for justice continues.

Luisa Lopez said it’s been a long and hard-fought road for the members of Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) who have been lobbying for a change and recognition of the damage done on that day. Lopez has long served as the main advocate for Socorro area residents.

“It’s just great that they’re finally recognizing what that bomb did to a lot of people, especially people here in Socorro, you know, we’ve had a lot of cancer,” Lopez said.

This month, the advocacy group has had a breakthrough victories: the acknowledgment of their suffering with a plaque dedicated to Downwinders and the inclusion of the Downwinders in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

“We have been trying for a long time to get it passed, and they added it onto the big, beautiful bill, and it finally passed,” Lopez said.

She said that last year, the bill passed the Senate but not the House. However, with the help of New Mexico Senators and advocates, the bipartisan bill has made it through. Although it did not pass intact, Lopez still considers it a win.

“We have a foot in the door,” Lopez said, “At least we have a place to grab on to where we can still keep fighting.”

She said the original request included funding clinics to check people for radiation exposure and medical support, but it was cut from the bill.

“The family can request compensation. If your family member has died, like you lost your wife, or your child, then the surviving people can apply, and like I said, you have to have all this proof.” Lopez said.

Lopez understands firsthand the impact that radioactive exposure has had in Socorro County. Her husband passed away from cancer, and she suffers from various health issues, including a thyroid condition that is common among downwinders. Unfortunately, its unclear if either of them will qualify for compensation.

“And the thing with the type of cancer that my husband had, the lymphoma, it’s not a cancer that RECA recognizes,” Lopez said. “My understanding of the bill is that you can’t just have thyroid disease. You have to have a solid cancer. If I’m reading the bill right.”

Lopez said she will still apply for the compensation for herself.

TBDC has done over a thousand health surveys, and Lopez who did many local surveys has seen the high rates of cancer and generational health problems in Socorro, which she attributes to radiation exposure from the atomic blast.

“I know a family here (in Socorro) that has had cancer, either stomach cancer or pancreatic cancer. Then it just went on to the next generation,” Lopez said.

She said that something not a lot of people understand was the loss of all the babies.

“They always said that there were no casualties from the atomic blast, that nobody died, but what we saw in all of our research was that the biggest casualties were babies,” Lopez said.

She said the mothers didn’t know the breast milk they were feeding their babies had radiation.

The TBDC was established in 2005 as a grassroots organization aimed at raising awareness of the adverse health effects—particularly numerous forms of cancer—experienced by individuals living near the Trinity test site. These people were exposed to high levels of ionizing radiation following the test.

The original bill, passed in 1990, awarded financial reparations to Nevada Test Site Downwinders, on-site test participants during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, and uranium miners and millers who worked before 1971 and who developed cancer and other specific illnesses as a result of radioactive fallout or radon gasses to which they were exposed.

Residents in communities and regions around the Trinity Test in southeastern Socorro County were excluded from the original Act and its subsequent amendments.

Downwinders who lived close to the Nevada Test Site have received partial restitution and medical care through the Radiation Compensation Exposure Act (RECA), while none of the Downwinders in New Mexico have. The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles north of Las Vegas, was one of the most significant nuclear weapons test sites in the U.S., with nuclear atmospheric and underground testing occurring there between 1951 and 1992.

Tina Cordova told the Chieftain in a previous interview that soil samples from the Trinity Test site have shown a unique signature that allows researchers to trace fallout back to the bomb.

“But what came through is that Socorro County was the fifth-highest county in the country for overall fallout deposited from above-ground testing,” Cordova said. “These are significant findings.”