ABSTRACT
With the political pressures of the Cold War well in the past, the American public health research community has a clear chance to tell the story of what radiation has done and is doing to society's health. Future policies on how to control and clean up waste are crucial to how future generations' health will be affected by radiation. Groups at greatest risk for immune diseases caused by radiation, such as the Baby Boomers, should receive encouragement to have their immune system checked and to be screened for certain diseases. Even if tests are conducted underground, and if weapons production is "cleaner" than it was in the middle of the century, the addition of low-level radiation to the environment would be a harrowing re-visit to the past, with potentially dire health consequences. Inspections would be frequent and impartial, with maintenance of public health rather than continued operation of nuclear reactors as regulators' top goal.
