By Brother Louis Rodemann, FSC
A dozen local Kansas City peace activists gathered for a showing of the documentary film “Silent Fallout” at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church on April 13, 2025. Most of the film consisted of testimonials of survivals of the immediate and long-term effects of the radiation fallout resulting from atmospheric bombing during the 1950s & 1960s. The people who mostly lived east of a bomb site were referred to as downwinders. Testimonials consisted of people’s memories of children witnessing the death of classmates and long-term friends. The radiation effects continued to show up in adults 60 years later. These were ordinary people from peaceful neighborhoods living and working and raising happy families.
High rates of illness and death occurred in the city of St. George, Utah, the closest community east of one bombsite. There is a lookout place where people used to gather for a good view of the tests, which is now a tourist lookout site.
The fallout reached from 6 to 12 miles high into the atmosphere, and radiation was detected as far north as New York City, some 2,300 miles east. Scientists devised ways of tracking the radiation fallout. As the wind blew eastward, the results literally affected all areas of the US.
Radiation showed up in multiple ways. Two examples: one in milk from cows that ate radiated grass, and the other in honey from bees who pollinated radiated plants. Dr. Louise Reise, a member of the Committee for Environmental Activity in Saint Louis, Mo., headed up the “Gave My Tooth to Science” project. Children in a radius of 150 miles from Saint Louis sent their baby teeth to be analyzed. Some 300,000 participated in this test in the 1950s and early 1960s. High rates of radiation were detected.
Despite knowledge of all of these tests, the US continued testing. Then in the early 1960s, Kennedy for the US and Khruschev for the Soviet Union signed a treaty discontinuing atmospheric testing. Even so, there is still evidence of global fallout. No part of the planet has been left untouched.
—Christian Brother Louis Rodemann, of Kansas City, Mo., has repeatedly protested the making of parts for nuclear weapons in KC. He taught high school English and math; he formed community at Holy Family Catholic Worker House, where he lived 28 years; and he continues challenging us to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God” (Micah 6:8). Image: https://filmguide.hamptonsfilmfest.org/events/silentfalloutbabyteethspeak/. © Louis Rodemann, 2025, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International License. We ask you to join us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/pwkc.org.
One Response
Brilliant share! Thank you Brother Louis. The movie is jaw=dropping in its scope and revelations, we all should know and so many of us don’t.