April 27, 1953

Where were you on this day? Not yet born, or outside playing in the spring rain? On that day, an RPI professor and his class detected unusually high levels of radiation in the area, and in the water of the Tomhannock Reservoir, and thus Troy's drinking water. Two days before, nuclear test "Simon" was conducted in Nevada, and the fallout followed a path leading into Troy up to southern Vermont, or right up Route 40. I remember a teacher who lived in Melrose was interested in a study that was done (unofficially, I presume) in relation to unusually high incidences of cancer in the Melrose area. The study was doomed to failure because the testing was ruled classified. The government did reassure the worried, though, by saying the amounts of radiation, though measurably higher than ordinary, posed no health threat. Unfortunately and ironically, that teacher, his wife and young son who lived in Melrose for years, all developed cancer, the teacher dying from it. Of course, we'll never know what if any, cancer threat that incident posed, but we do know that something causes cancer, and the medical community has no clear answer as to what the cause or causes may be. A book by Bill Heller addresses the incident: "A Good Day Has No Rain: The Truth about How Nuclear Test Fallout Contaminated Upstate New York." An excerpt from "Secret Fallout--Low Level Radiation from Hiroshima to Three Mile Island" by Dr. Ernest Sternglass is titled THE TROY INCIDENT. It can be read online http:www.ratical.com/radiation/SecretFallout/