Children of The Marshall Islands - Research Paper Example

The nuclear testing at the Marshal Island drew long lasting impact upon the people of the islands some of them proves to be very severe for the people especially for the children. The nuclear test resulted in both short term and long term effects experienced by the people at Marshal Island. The nuclear explosion put the health safety of people in extreme danger whereas the children were also badly affected from the nuclear testing and man y of them got the possibility of suffering from serious diseases like cancer in their future lives.

Many of the children suffered from different health problems soon after the nuclear explosion whereas many remained vulnerable to severe diseases (Stephanie, 2009). The period of 1946 to 1958 witnessed the conduction of 67 nuclear tests by the United States in the Marshal Islands. Most of these nuclear tests were considered atmospheric. Among these, Bravo shot was the most powerful test conducted in 1954 at Bikini atoll that was estimated equivalent to 7,000 Hiroshima Bombs. After 1958 also US continued nuclear testing on the marshal Island and till 1988, 930 known nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshal Island.

According to the estimated these tests combined yield 175 megatons and 137 were devoted to the atmosphere. These tests are regarded very important part of US nuclear testing because despite being just 14% of total US nuclear tests, they yielded 80% of the atmospheric total donated by the US nuclear testing. As a result the marshal Islands were regarded as most contaminated place of the world by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1956. The effects of these nuclear tests were also very strong and the people of the Island had to pay very high cost due to the use of their lands as the site for the UNS nuclear testing.

The thermonuclear explosion occurred in 1954 deposited life threatening quantity of radioactive on the island that put the inhabitant’s health safety on high risk level. In 1986 also the people of the island living near Chernobyl received three times higher than the estimated dose of radioactive caused from the nuclear accident. These radioactive caused serious damages to the life of the people. Many of them suffered from tissue destructive effects like burning etc. whereas many others had to face latent radiation-induced disease (Hein, et al, 2007).

 The effects of nuclear testing were also identified upon the children in their later lives. It was found that almost 69% of the 10 year old children living in Marshal Island in 1954 developed thyroid tumours due to the high dose of nuclear radiation. The prevalence of thyroid cancer is also higher among the people that were inhabitant of the Marshal Island. It was found that the radioiodine became most harmful for the health of the children because it concentrated in the milk and then concentrate in the human glands.

Since children usually consume milk on daily basis the prevalence of thyroid cancer due to the concentration of radioiodine also became very common among the children and children of the Marshal Island suffered from thyroid cancer in greater numbers (Stephanie, 2009).