Cancer Factories: America’s Tragic Quest for Uranium Self-Sufficiency

For the first time the sad story of America’s uranium miners and the duplicity of the American government is revealed. This study examines, in microcosm, the political, legal, social, medical, engineering and ethical problems that emerged when American leaders developed a nuclear arsenal to contain the USSR without considering the cost this could have on innocent lives. Medical and public health personnel, policymakers and political scientists, lawyers and legal historians, and citizen watchdogs should find this account illuminating. Dr. Ball provides the context in the 1940s and 1950s for understanding the Communist hysteria that swept the country then and led policymakers to develop risky nuclear technology and to engage in uranium mining and production while assuring Navajo and Mormon miners of their safety. The study analyses the medical consequences and the aetiology of cancer among miners, the politics behind radioactive policy, the miners’ long legal battles, and compensatory legislation in 1990. An appendix provides a federal report about three decades of radiation experiences on US citizens.