nuclear weapons

The harm from the production and use of the newly developed technologies were increased health risks and a polluted environment. Yet the changes to the personal health and environment of Americans were felt gradually over a long time period. The analogy that Louis Ward brought up in section regarding the frog in heating water versus boiling water hits exactly that point. The social, personal and environmental changes were occurring ever so slowly that it was difficult for the changes to be easily noticed. The increased risks of cancer from exposure to the radiation do not appear until several years later. The dangers of radioactive fallout from nuclear testing was not widely publicized until 1954 when a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific contaminated the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon and led to the death of one of the fishermen several months later. This incident resulted in worldwide concern and sparked the development of the anti-nuclear weapons movement. However, even in 1962, the Defense Department in the federal government was spending about 22 percent of their total budget on nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.

The effects of environmental pollution stemming from the Industrial Revolution occurred even more gradually. The Industrial Revolution started in the later part of the nineteenth century but it was not until the middle of the twentieth century when the effects of air and water pollution were felt around the world. In 1969, the chemical waste that was released into Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caused the river to catch on fire on numerous occasions. It was drastic events such as that which helped Americans understand the tremendous impact of environmental pollution. It served as a symbolic event of the envir...

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... pollution, like the use of nuclear weapons, contributed to the increase in risk of cancer and a host of other health conditions.

Americans were also apprehensive about the social issues that were rising from nuclear weapons and industrial pollution. The first of these issues was safety concerns on the proper procedures and safety protocols. In the latter part of the 1950s and early 1960s, there were reports of incidents occurring from failed reactors. For example, there was an accident at Sylvania Electrical Products in New York where explosions injured nine people. The reactor at the Argonne National Laboratory had control issues. Environmental waste into the Ohio Cuyahoga River resulted in the river bursting into flames on a number of occasions. The public began to grow concern on procedures needed for proper safety management of these technological products.