Coping with America's War programs: A state perspective

In the late 1970s, I directed the Colorado Health Department, where I contended with three elements of the U.S. war machine: The production of plutonium triggers for thermonuclear weapons; the transportation and storage of binary nerve gas bombs; and uranium mining, milling, transport, and waste management. The lessons I learned from studying these programs, dealing with the health consequences and with the Department of Defense and the Energy Research and Development Administration (the Department of Energy's predecessor) remain pertinent today. As states, under our Constitution, retain the principal responsibility for the health of the population, perhaps they can help us understand how preparations for war harm the health of the people, even if a war never happens.