# St. George Utah Downwinders

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349 "2016-09-08T17:37:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![richrandgold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47774/32.png) [@richrandgold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richrandgold)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/1 "2016-09-08T17:37:13Z")

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A retired friend is considering a move to St. George, Utah. Is it safe to live there now given it lies downwind of the nuclear testing done in Nevada in the early 1950s?

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**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/2 "2016-09-08T18:44:56Z")

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A beautiful place, Saint George, Utah.

Yeah, it is probably safer than Chicago.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/3 "2016-09-08T18:48:28Z")

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These days, the radiation level in all of the downwind areas from the Nevada test sites has pretty much all decayed back down to background levels, so nothing to worry about there.

Poking around on google, it looks like higher than normal incidents of cancers and other problems were reported from the 1950s up through the 1980s or so. In 2016, it’s no longer an issue.

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**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/4 "2016-09-08T19:03:40Z")

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[Did it kill John Wayne?](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/06/downwinders-nuclear-fallout-hollywood-john-wayne)

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/5 "2016-09-08T22:28:35Z")

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In the long run, every point on Earth is downwind from every other point.

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**Author:** ![ASGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-george-utah-downwinders/765349/6 "2016-09-09T01:47:20Z")

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I think this is an interesting, if somewhat moot, question, considering the last above ground test was conducted in 1963.

I’m jumping in only because radiation exposure is insidious and I personally have a [negative] knee-jerk reaction about it.

I would not hesitate to live down_wind_ of any Nevada test site. But down_river_ of Hanford (WA), or near some of the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) World War II production sites? Maybe not.