In the June 25 article “Inequities Edited out of LANL Study,” it is clear that accountability and transparency are not practiced “on the hill.”
What was glaringly left out was the enormous health cost that the Lab and nuclear weapons work has caused Northern New Mexico. Because we can’t “prove” the cause of heath issues doesn’t mean that there isn’t a preponderance of evidence that points to Lab and weapons work.
In 2006, dust in my house tested too high in Strontium 90 and a neighbor’s plums tested with high levels of Tritium. This could only have come from activities at the Lab. Strontium 90 is not a naturally occurring element.
The Cerro Grande Fire demonstrated that we are directly downwind of Los Alamos and brought many health risks into focus.
The negative cost of Los Alamos to the communities surrounding it is way higher than any of these studies show, and current plans to bring more pit production to the Lab will only increase this.
At this time, when we should be doing research on a COVID-19 vaccine and creating solutions to climate change, the push for increased pit production is preposterous. We need jobs, but not this kind. There are plenty of good projects to invest in.
During this COVID-19 pandemic we are forced to reevaluate our lives and our communities and ask ourselves: What is essential? What do we really need? Do we need nuclear weapons?
I think not. The only justification for weapons of mass destruction is if the U.S. really intends to “put its knee on the neck of the world” and, in a trickle down of tritium and treachery, the Lab in turn, puts its knee on the neck of Northern New Mexico. One way or another, the cost will be passed down to us.
Jean Nichols
Llano