Posted on 21 March 2022
A new scientific report suggests that the radioactive element strontium 90 is a more significant contamination factor in the northern Marshall Islands than has been acknowledged to date by the US Department of Energy.
Strontium-90 behaves like calcium in the human body and tends to deposit in bone and blood- forming tissue, and exposure will increase the risk for several diseases including cancer and leukemia. The occurrence of Strontium-90 is due to the 67 US nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958.
Remembrance Day, March 2, is an official holiday in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and honors the victims and survivors of the nuclear testing.