Paul Jacob and the nuclear gang

Opening with a 1951 speech by US President Harry S. Truman, this documentary explores the data gathered by investigative reporter Paul Jacobs on the long range effects of low level radiation and exposes the attempts by the US Government to keep this information from the public. In 1957, on the advice of Linus Pauling, Jacobs went to several small towns in Utah and Arizona to substantiate reports that people there had been exposed to radioactive fallout from the Nevada atomic test. It became evident from his work over the following years that the incidence of cancer and leukemia was much higher there than in other areas. The film covers exposure to atomic fallout by civilians around the government’s Nevada site in the 1950’s and early 60’s and the soldiers who were participants in the nuclear bomb tests. Also looks at the problems [today] facing workers at the government’s nuclear facilities at Hanford, Washington and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Interviews civilian residing near the Rocky Flats, Colorado nuclear plant. The reporter’s probe ended with his death in 1978, a month after this documentary was filmed. His death has been attributed to a rare form of lung cancer which his doctors believe he contracted investigating the story in 1957. Includes extracts from films produced in the 1950’s promoting the government’s safety practices. Also among those interviewed are Dr Thomas Mancuso, Dr Helen Caldicott and representatives of the US Defense Nuclear Agency and Department of Energy. (Awards: Mannheim Film Festiva)