Dr. Moench on panel for documentary “Downwind” at the Slamdance Film Festival

Dr. Moench was on a question and answer panel at Slamdance Film Festival after a documentary, “Downwind” showed the public health effect of nuclear testing. 

“Subsequent generations may suffer more than the original exposed generation,” Dr. Brian Moench, said on the panel. “The faces behind the statistics we’ve heard are real human beings, but there will be more who you don’t see because they haven’t been born yet.”

“Some 928 nuclear detonations took place from 1951 to 1992 near Las Vegas, Nevada. These included the 100 atmospheric tests residents of Southern Utah could watch. Research shows St. George has above-average rates of radioactivity compared with the nationwide average,” St. George News reports. 

A Salt Lake Tribune article on the documentary quoted the film’s co-director Mark Shapiro, “The government knowingly exposed people, what they called ‘low-use’ segments of the population — Native Americans and Mormon families — in government documents. Those are groups that roll with [things], they don’t tend to raise a ruckus.”

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), expanded by President Biden, offers compensation to those who were affected. 

See the St. George News coverage here.

Read the Tribune’s coverage here.