Book Review: Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed

Abstract

Nurses and other health professionals working to reduce health disparities and promote policies to increase health equity need to know about contemporary issues that impact minority populations. This book review details one such issue, told by Judy Pasternak in Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed. In the book review, the history of uranium mining in Navajo communities is described, highlighting the minimization of health impacts on the Diné (Navajo) people by the U.S. government, health agencies and the Atomic Energy Commission. It outlines the struggle of Navajo people and other advocates today to clean up the devastating environmental impacts and cope with the health impacts, which include exponentially increased rates of cancer and syndromes related to in utero exposure to uranium. This is a story that few outside of Navajo Country know about. It is a cautionary tale to health care workers demonstrating how unethical and practices dangerous to the health of workers and future generations of their families can happen in our nation even today, and how health care workers can be unwitting participants.