The U.S. Tested 67 Nuclear Bombs in Their Country. Now They’re Dying in Enid Oklahoma.

A good friend who knows I'm from Enid Oklahoma sent this story which resonates strongly with me. Briefly, Marshallese Islanders were exposed to massive US nuclear testing following the WWII. Then, quoted from the article:

"thanks to a treaty signed when the Marshall Islands gained independence from the U.S. in 1986, Marshallese citizens are allowed to live and work in the States. Between 2000 and 2010, the number here grew by 237 percent. This mass migration is driven in part by poverty and lack of services in the islands. But it’s also a legacy of the U.S. occupation and the various damages it left behind."

The entire article can be read here:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-u-s-tested-67-nuclear-bombs-in-their-country-now-they-re-dying-in-oklahoma

Some 20,000 Marshallese have migrated to the US, and nearly 3000 have settled in Enid. Now, years later, most have type II diabetes and cancer. I'm only in Enid briefly around the holidays, and was unaware of the Marshallese population, but what I can say is the small prairie towns I know of in Oklahoma all have very high rates of obesity and type II diabetes, and the cause is quite simply a bad diet. 

The ironic tragedy is that it can be completely reversed with diet alone. But there is little awareness of it, no one is accurately informing the population it's possible, much less helping with transition.

So the Marshallese in Enid suffer with both radiation poisoning and food poisoning. I would guess 70% of the population of Enid is pre-diabetic or diabetic, with all the other correlated conditions; the various autoimmunes, cardiovasculars, and cancers.

But it's not only Enid. Post industrial health collapse is a problem so vast that the solution, logistically quite simple on an individual level (but complex on cultural and economic levels), remains effectively invisible.

I feel bad for the Marshallese immigrants, they are the "beneficiaries" of a double whammy of US "largesse".