The Manhattan Project was an unprecedented, top-secret World War II government program, running from 1942 to 1947, in which the United States employed military personnel and civilians to develop and deploy the world’s first atomic weapons before Nazi Germany. This advancement paved the way for nuclear science and energy but at a cost to population health. In the haste to develop the nation’s first atomic weapons, people were exposed to radiation, chemicals, and other hazards.
To better understand the harm caused by exposures that occurred during the Manhattan Project, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine created the Committee to Conduct a Feasibility of Assessing Veteran Health Effects of Manhattan Project.
David Richardson, PhD, professor of environmental & occupational health and associate dean of research at the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, was selected to serve as a committee member. As an internationally recognized researcher and expert in occupational health, Richardson is poised to provide integral expertise to the committee’s charge of uncovering the connection between exposures from the Manhattan Project and adverse health outcomes.
I’m honored to be part of a committee that is assessing the health effects of the race to develop the world’s first atomic weapon.”
– David Richardson, PhD
A few of the tasks the committee is charged with include:
- Identify potential sources and format of data and records that identify the population of veterans who served at Manhattan Project sites were wastes were generated
- Characterize the contents of those records by demographic, military information, potential exposures, and other locations where veterans served
- Identify health outcomes of this veteran population
The committee’s work commences immediately and will run through the fall of 2025.
