5 Things You Should Know About Nuclear Fallout

The Marshall Islands hosted over 60 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958 and a majority of these test were conducted specifically on or around Bikini Atoll. Side note before things get really dark, this is where Spongebob Squarepants' home Bikini Bottom gets its name.

Rongelap Atoll, 154 kilometres from Bikini Atoll, was particularly affected by the tests because it was downwind, so much of the fallout was deposited around Rongelap. According to various studies, including a meta-analysis conducted in 2010, residents of Rongelap received high, sustained doses of radiation. There have been multiple reports of babies born with horrifying birth defects that you are more than welcome to look for on your own time.

The US declared Bikini Atoll to be habitable in the early 1970s so some of the former residents returned, but they had to leave again in 1978 when it was discovered that the food grown on the island had high levels of radiation. This phenomenon isn't limited to the Marshall islands but they are a pretty egregious example.

It's essential that we establish that correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation. The truth is there is debate on how much radiation, in what quantity, over what amount of time would cause long term health concerns and any of these concerns is variable depending on the person, their diet, age, location, any number of factors; and the only way to get more varied and reliable data would be to drop more nukes, which isn't really ideal.

As a standard rule, though, it's probably good practice to avoid much radiation as possible but background radiation is everywhere so you'll never be able to completely avoid it.