Advocate for Your Own Health: Make Rocky Flats Part of the Conversation

If you grew up, lived, worked or attended school near Rocky Flats, does your doctor know?

For many Rocky Flats Downwinders, the answer is probably no. Many physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals practicing in Colorado today did not live here during Rocky Flats' operating years. Some may know little about the former nuclear weapons plant, its history, the materials handled there, or the concerns that have persisted in surrounding communities.

That creates an important opportunity for Downwinders: Advocate for yourself by making your Rocky Flats history part of your healthcare conversation.

Where you lived is part of your history

When we think about medical history, we usually think about illnesses, medications, surgeries and family history. But environmental history can matter too. If you lived, worked or attended school near Rocky Flats during its years of operation, tell your healthcare provider. You don't need to walk into the appointment claiming that Rocky Flats caused an illness. In fact, simply having lived near Rocky Flats cannot establish your individual exposure or prove that a particular health condition resulted from the plant.

Instead, you can say something much simpler:

“I lived near Rocky Flats while the nuclear weapons plant was operating, and I'd like that history to be part of my medical record and health conversations.” That gives your provider information they might otherwise never know.

Your healthcare provider may not know the Rocky Flats story

Rocky Flats was a major part of Colorado's Cold War history, but that doesn't mean every healthcare professional knows that history. The plant manufactured components for the nation's nuclear weapons program for decades. Its history includes plutonium and other radioactive materials, hazardous chemicals, fires, environmental releases and contamination.

Someone who trained outside Colorado—or who came to the area after Rocky Flats closed—may have little reason to know those details. Patients can help close that information gap.

When you tell your doctor about where you lived, you aren't only giving them information about yourself. You may also be introducing a healthcare professional to a chapter of Colorado history that could be relevant to other patients in their practice.

RFD created a letter to help you start the conversation

Rocky Flats Downwinders has prepared an Environmental Exposure Letter for Primary Care Providers that Downwinders can share with their physicians and other healthcare professionals. The letter provides a concise introduction to Rocky Flats and explains why a patient's history of living, working or attending school near the plant may be worth including in their environmental and medical history. It also includes an important limitation:

Residence near Rocky Flats does not establish an individual's radiation dose or prove that Rocky Flats caused an illness. The letter is not intended to diagnose anyone, establish causation or tell physicians how to practice medicine. It is a conversation starter.

Environmental Exposure Letter for Primary Care Providers

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Download the Environmental Exposure Letter for Primary Care Providers 

ONE_PAGE_Rocky_Flats_Environmental_Exposure_Letter.pdf

Download PDF • 118KB

Print it, save it to your phone, send it through your patient portal, or bring a copy to your next appointment.

What should you tell your healthcare provider?

You don't need to arrive with a scientific report. Start with what you know about your own history. Tell your provider approximately where you lived, worked or attended school in relation to Rocky Flats and during what years. If you moved several times in the surrounding area, mention that too. If other members of your household or family have experienced significant illnesses, that information may already be relevant to the family history your provider collects. Most importantly, don't feel that you have to determine whether an illness was caused by Rocky Flats before mentioning your history.

Determining causation is not your job as a patient. Providing an accurate history is.

Why this matters even while the science remains uncertain

Rocky Flats Downwinders is simultaneously advocating for better health research.

Those two efforts are complementary. At the community level, we are asking qualified researchers to better investigate the long-term health of people who actually lived near Rocky Flats during historically relevant periods. At the individual level, we can make sure our own healthcare professionals know that history. One does not require us to wait for the other.

Better epidemiological research may take years. Your next doctor's appointment may be next month.

This also helps educate the medical community

There is another reason we hope Downwinders will share the letter. Every conversation increases awareness. A physician may read the letter because one patient brings it in. Later, another patient may mention growing up in Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield, Superior or another community around Rocky Flats. Now the provider has context they didn't have before.

Over time, greater awareness among physicians, nurses, mental-health professionals and other healthcare providers can help make environmental history a more familiar part of conversations with people who lived around Rocky Flats. That is one reason RFD's health advocacy isn't limited to government studies. We also want to educate the healthcare community.

Advocate without assuming the answer

There is an important balance here. We believe Rocky Flats Downwinders should be taken seriously when they raise questions about their health histories. We also believe those questions should be approached responsibly. Telling your doctor that you lived near Rocky Flats does not mean telling your doctor that Rocky Flats caused your cancer, autoimmune disease, thyroid condition or another illness. It means providing information and allowing your healthcare professional to consider it in the context of your complete medical history.

That distinction matters.

It is the same principle behind RFD's broader health advocacy: Ask the question. Provide the information. Seek better research. Don't claim an answer the evidence cannot yet provide.

Advocate for yourself. Educate your provider.

For many Downwinders, we cannot change where we lived decades ago. But we can make sure that history isn't forgotten. At your next medical appointment, consider telling your healthcare provider: I lived near Rocky Flats.

Tell them when.

Tell them where.

Give them the provider letter.

Ask that your environmental history be considered as part of your overall health history.

It is a small action, but when many Downwinders take it, it can accomplish two things at once:

It helps you advocate for your own health—and it helps build awareness of Rocky Flats within Colorado's healthcare community.