“Unearthed Dangers: How Cold War-Era Uranium Mines Are Devastating the Health of Navajo Women and Their Infants”
The Associated Press reported that early findings from a recent study by the University of New Mexico have confirmed that Navajo women and babies continue to suffer from radiation exposure, even though uranium mining in the state ended more than 20 years ago.
The federally-funded study found that about a quarter of Navajo women and infants had high levels of the highly radioactive element in their systems. Among the 781 Navajo women who were screened during the initial phase of the study, 26 percent had concentrations of uranium that exceeded levels found in the highest five percent of the U.S. population. In addition, newborn Navajo babies with equally high concentrations continued to be exposed to uranium during their first year of life.
These dire findings came to light during a congressional field hearing in Albuquerque held by U.S. Senator Tom Udall, U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan — all from New Mexico.
“It forces us to own up to the known detriments associated with a nuclear-forward society,” said Haaland, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.
Haaland and other elected officials heard testimonies from U.S. health officials, including Dr. Loretta Christensen, the chief medical officer on the Navajo Nation for Indian Health Service, and members from the Indigenous tribes who have been affected by the radioactive exposure related to uranium mining.
“The government is so unjust with us,” said Leslie Begay, a former uranium miner who lives in Window Rock, a town that sits near the New Mexico and Arizona border and serves as the Navajo Nation capital. “The government doesn’t recognize that we built their freedom.”
