A Commentary on Documenting Birth Outcomes and Fetal Death as a Result of Hanford Site, Washington, Radioactive Airborne and River-Borne Emissions Beginning November 1944
Fallout containing radioactive byproducts of plutonium production at the Hanford atomic weapons facility near Richland, WA secretly blanketed downwind civilian populations, called “Downwinders”, throughout the Inland Northwest. Research into health impacts has been hindered by the decades-long delay between these releases which began with the site’s start-up in November 1944 and declassification of Hanford operational records disclosing these releases in 1986. Downwinders observed and prior analyses suggested an apparent excess in fetal and neonatal deaths during the 1940s and 1950s. Analysis of radiation released by Hanford, the possible cause of these deaths, has been hampered by data access and time. The few existing studies relied on uncertain, estimated exposure doses from the heavily criticized government-sponsored Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction project. Women and children, lower-socioeconomic status, non-white, and Indigenous communities are commonly overburdened by exposures to radioactive contamination and lack of subsequent care and study. This commentary highlights the unanswered questions surrounding pregnancy outcomes impacted by exposures to airborne and river-borne radiation from Hanford, documents the process and barriers to addressing these questions, and calls for increased accessibility of information, especially for impacted communities.