US Atomic Tests in the Marshall Islands: UN Geneva
The US carried out their main Atmospheric Megaton Hydrogen (thermonuclear) Bomb Tests in the Pacific Test grounds centred on the Marshall Islands between 1950 and 1958 after the discovery that their atomic tests in the Nevada desert and in New Mexico were causing fallout contamination as far away as New York. The Hydrogen Bombs were tested in the Marshall Islands and the largest one, a 15Mt bomb destroyed Bikini atoll. Fallout in the Marshall Islands resulted in serious health effects which were systematically either ignored or covered up. The question of the magnitude of these effects has come to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and a Special Rapporteur was charged with investigating the issue and producing a report for the September meeting of the UNHRC in Geneva. The US Health Physics Society had previously produced a biased and dishonest report arguing that fallout was too low and doses too low to have caused any effects. This video is of the first half of the UNHRC meeting in Geneva on September 13th 2012 organised by the American Anthropological Association AAA. The meeting Chair is Prof Barbara Rose Johnston and presentations were made by Prof Holly Barker and Prof Chris Busby. Delegates from the Marshall Islands also attended and made contributions. Dr Busby's presentation is uploaded in a separate video and his report to the UNHRC is at www.nuclearjustice.org and his paper on the effects is at http://www.greenaudit.org/?page_id=104
The main recommendations of Dr Busby's reports were adopted by the UN Special Rapporteur in his report to the General Assembly, most important being that a proper independent (of the US and the Health Physics Society) investigation of the contamination and the ill health are carried out.
Since this video was uploaded, the AAA have written to ask that we make clear that they (the AAA) have no opinion on the issue of the health effects of radiation in the Marshall Islands but sponsored the meeting in the interests of opening up a discussion.