Am I an upwinder?

Could my breast cancer have been caused from exposure to atomic testing in the 1950s?  When my dad died of cancer in 1983, could it have been caused from the fallout from atomic testing in  Nevada?  Was my Mom's breast cancer caused from the same testing?  We were all living in Idaho at the time of the nuclear testing. Three cases of cancer in our family.  How unusual.  Or is it?

Nuclear testing  at the Nevada test site was conducted from January 21, 1951 until October 31, 1958 and again in 1962.  I was born in Idaho in 1955, right in the middle of that test period. The fallout from all the testing drifted across our country.  However, some areas were harder hit from the fallout that others, depending on weather patterns and air flow.  Test your exposure here on The National Cancer Institute web site.

In 1997 an article was published in the Deseret News called Fallout in the Family.  That was the first time I read about the fact that several counties in Idaho were very hard hit by atomic fall out.  While the county I grew up in (Minidoka) wasn't among the four counties mentioned, it is surrounded by Blaine county that was a hard hit area.  The idea is that wind currents carried the fallout into Idaho and it fell on the crops that were growing there.  Farmers and ranchers were exposed to that fallout as well as all the cows that ate feed that was dusted with the fallout.  The cows ate the tainted fallout particles and passed it into their milk. My siblings and I grew up drinking raw milk from our neighbors cows.  We undoubtedly were exposed to radiation.  From the article:

However, when I learned in August that four Idaho counties were among the five that received the most radiation from Nevada blasts (the fifth was in Montana), I immediately suspected that Minidoka County, where Rupert is located, would be among the four. Wrong. The list consisted of Blaine, Lemhi, Gem and Custer counties. Not being familiar with the names and locations of most Idaho counties, I consulted a map. Guess which county I discovered shares two borders with Minidoka County? Blaine - one of the five heaviest fallout areas in America. And when I took an even closer look, I could see that my uncle's farm was about five to 10 miles from a Minidoka-Blaine border. 

Currently the federal government is only recognizing and taking responsibility for people who were affected by the nuclear testing in certain counties in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.  They are providing compensation for certain types of cancer through the Radiation Expose Compensation Act or RECA.   Their website is located here.

       See If You Qualify for Downwinders TM $50,000
If you or a family member have had internal cancer or leukemia within the last fifty years (even if family member is deceased) or if you get cancer and lived in any of the following counties for a period of at least two years between January 21, 1951 and October 31, 1958 or during the entire month of July 1962.  In ARIZONA - Apache, Coconino, Gila, Navajo, Yavapai.  In NEVADA - Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Nye, White Pine or the northern portion of Clark.  In UTAH - Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington or Wayne you may qualify for $50,000 tax free.

The following are Primary cancers that are covered under this program:    Bile Duct Cancer    Bladder Cancer    Brain Caner    Breast Cancer (male and female)    Colon Cancer    Rectal Cancer    Esophagus Cancer    Gall Bladder Cancer    Leukemia’s (other than CLL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia)    Liver Cancer (except if there is evidence of cirrhosis or Hepatitis B)    Lung Cancer    Multiple Myeloma    Nasal Pharynx Cancer    Lymphomas (other than Hodgkin's disease)    Ovarian Cancer    Pancreas Cancer    Salivary Gland Cancer    Small Intestine Cancer    Stomach Cancer    and    Thyroid Cancer 


Check out these links: Here.  Here.   Here.  Here.  Here.  Here are a few excerpts:

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.

and this...

The consequences of 90 bomb tests that took place between 1951 and 1962 weren't made public until a National Cancer Institute study was released in 1997.
The study identified four Idaho counties — Gem, Blaine, Custer and Lemhi — among the five hardest hit counties nationally in terms of doses of radioactive iodine.
Since winds from the Nevada Test Site typically carried the radioactive nuclear fallout, specifically iodine-131, to the north and east, certain counties in Utah, Arizona and Nevada are eligible for compensation. But not Idaho.
Many were exposed to the radiation by drinking milk at a young age. Winds carried the fallout to alfalfa fields where it was ingested by cows, distributed in milk and consumed by people, especially children.
But despite the evidence presented in the 1997 study, Idahoans still are not eligible for the $50,000 compensation.

Since I grew up in Idaho, I don't quality for compensation.  Neither does my dad. Neither does my mom. I am more interested in knowing what caused our cancer.  Was it caused by  atomic testing in the 1950s?  I want to know and so do a lot of fellow Idahoans.