BOISE — For much of her childhood, Sheri Garman drank poisoned milk.
Like many other children in eastern Idaho in the 1950s, Garman and her family drank locally produced raw milk. But the cows on Garman's family dairy and other regional dairies were ingesting radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear testing in Nevada, and passing on the radiation to humans through their milk.
"Radiation fallout was like dew on the grass," Garman told researchers with National Academies Board on Radiation Effects Research during a hearing for downwinders — the Idaho residents believed to be suffering radiation-related health problems.
Garman asked the research council to recommend that Idaho residents be covered under the federal government's Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
"We are the poster children for the radiation that came to Idaho, yet we are not included in RECA," she said.
The National Academy of Sciences agreed to accept testimony in Idaho about the impact fallout had on residents' health in response to hundreds of letters. The hearing in Boise Saturday drew hundreds of downwinders.
The compensation act provides a $50,000 payment to residents with certain kinds of cancers who lived in 21 counties in southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona during the testing.
Not included under the act are the four Idaho counties — Blaine, Gem, Custer and Lemhi — which received some of the highest levels of iodine-131, one of the radioactive elements released by the tests, according to a 1997 National Cancer Institute Study.
Garman said the exposure left her with thyroid cancer, followed by breast cancer. When the breast cancer recently spread, doctors told her she could expect to live between 18 and 24 more months.
"If I meet the statistics, I will die by this time next year," Garman told the scientists. "Cancer is knowing that it will take more than modern medicine for me to see my daughter's wedding. I'm fighting terminal cancer that could have been avoided."
Jeannie Burkhart sent a written statement and a videotaped statement to be played for the scientists. Burkhart was diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer while still in high school, and in the years since doctors have removed parts of her stomach, liver and spleen in an effort to fight the disease. Burkhart continues to have surgery an average of every four years, she said.
"I am out of spare parts, and I know someday this cancer will take me down," she said. "Please don't just hear us. Please take us all to heart."
Idaho's congressional delegation and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne attended the meeting to hear resident's concerns. U.S. Senator Larry Craig said the matter was particularly important to him.
"I can tell you my interest is personal," Craig said. "I was a child 7 to 10 years of age growing up in Washington County with my sister, drinking raw cows' milk."
But some residents took the lawmakers to task for allegedly being slow to step in.
"We have to look behind the warm smiles and thanking them for coming," said Peter Rickards, a podiatrist from Twin Falls. "This is the tip of the iceberg in Idaho."
Lin Hintze, a commissioner in Custer County, said delegates needed to help eastern Idaho residents get better insurance coverage for treatment and testing of radiation-related illnesses. Hintze brought with him a list of more than 100 people who have had cancer in his area. He told the panel he came up with the list off the top of his head, and there were likely many more.
The Board on Radiation Effects Research has already held similar meetings in Utah and Arizona. The board's report to Congress is expected to be released in March.