The State - News from Feb. 15, 1987

Lawyers representing military veterans exposed to radiation from American atomic bomb tests in Nevada and the South Pacific 40 years ago are trying to persuade a San Francisco federal appeals court to throw out a law giving contractors who participated in the tests immunity from liability for negligence claims. Attorneys for 34 veterans or their survivors argue that the law, passed by Congress in 1985, is unconstitutional. The Justice Department, however, said that courts cannot declare a law unconstitutional simply because it throws out of court people who had a case pending under an old law. An estimated 5,000 to 250,000 veterans were exposed to radiation in the bomb tests after World War II. Many developed cancers, brain tumors, leukemia or other illnesses they believe are a direct result of the radiation exposure.