Mi Vida uranium mine near Moab
Credit By Matt Affolter at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10814931
The film Downwinders and the Radioactive West has been airing on PBS Utah. Today we’re going to review a different part of America’s nuclear history. Susan Dawson and Gary Madsen are retired Utah State University professors whose research and Congressional testimony contributed to passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. In addition to providing financial compensation to downwinders and uranium miners and others, RECA also acknowledged that Congress apologizes on behalf of the nation to individuals who were involuntarily subjected to increased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interests of the United States. Professors Dawson’s and Madsen’s research from 1988 to 2010 focused on radiation exposures to underground and above ground uranium miners, uranium millworkers, and uranium transportatio
Radiation illnesses and COVID-19 in the Navajo Nation,
, February 3, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic is wiping out Indigenous elders and with them the cultural identity of Indigenous communities in the United States. But on lands that sprawl across a vast area of the American West, the Navajo (or Diné) are dealing not just with the pandemic, but also with another, related public health crisis. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says COVID-19 is killing Native Americans at nearly three times the rate of whites, and on the Navajo Nation itself, about 30,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and roughly 1,000 have died. But among the Diné, the coronavirus is also spreading through a population that decades of unsafe uranium mining and contaminated groundwater has left sick and vulnerable.
From leading multiple technology firms to working to increase educational and economic equality, to volunteering her time to increase access to cancer screenings, Susan Dawson is a woman of many roles and passions.
For work with the business community, the local economy and the educational system, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has named Dawson its Austinite of the Year for 2020. The award is the chamber’s highest annual honor.
“Susan Dawson exemplifies what it means to be Austinite of the Year, said chamber board chair Craig Enoch. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to serving our business community, transforming the economy, and reshaping our education system. Susan’s time at the chamber initiated the economic development program that continues to foster job-creating investment across the Austin region. Susan is more than deserving of this honor and I want to congratulate her on this distinction.