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Utah downwinder pens book about atomic testing

Eddie “Mac” Jones was an eyewitness to several of the atomic bomb detonations that occurred in Nevada.

(E. George Goold | St. George News) Author Eddie "Mac" Jones shows a picture of an example of the mushroom clouds he used to see while working at Area 12 when he was a young man in Nevada, St. George, Utah, June 5, 2025.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.

Author Eddie “Mac” Jones gets right down to it when asked why he wrote his self-published book, “You Are A Downwinder.”

“People either don’t know that they were exposed, or they’ve forgotten that they were exposed or they don’t care,” he added. “Sad to say, there’s those who don’t care.”

Jones was talking about exposure to radiation from nuclear bomb testing in Nevada in the mid-20th century.

“But they had cancer, or they have cancer, or they will have cancer,” Jones said. “Twenty more years of people that were exposed to those A-bombs that are over (age) 62, before they’re all gone.”

Jones is 87 years old. He said he’s lost a kidney due to the radiation, his nose has been rebuilt three times, he lost a brother to pancreatic cancer and his sister has had three operations for breast cancer.

Read more at stgeorgeutah.com.