WASHINGTON — Charles Clark knew something was wrong when he started losing his teeth at age 37.
"They just fell out — no blood," the Hawaii resident said.
He is virtually certain it had something to do with his Navy service in the Pacific during World War II, when he was exposed to atomic bomb radiation.
On Sept. 23, 1945, the 17-year-old sailor entered Nagasaki, Japan, where six weeks earlier the world's second nuclear weapons attack had killed 80,000 people. Some died due to massive doses of radiation.
Clark remained in Nagasaki for five days, setting up ship-to-shore communications. It would forever change his life.
Since then, "I've had more than 180 skin cancers removed from my face," he said in a recent interview. "Even today, the cancer keeps recurring. It never stops."
Clark is among a group called the "Atomic Vets" — American veterans exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons testing.
Between 1945 and 1962, half a million U.S. troops participated in more than 250 atmospheric and underwater atomic bomb tests, most in the Pacific and Nevada. Many have since suffered a panoply of illnesses commonly associated with radiation exposure, but have had trouble getting the care they need.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, has introduced legislation that would streamline the process and add transparency.
"These veterans are dying every day from diseases caused, at least in part, by their service in atomic tests and other nuclear weapon-related activities," the 11-term congressman said.
The treatment process is run through the Department of Veterans Affairs using data from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
Typically, the process entails a veteran approaching the VA with a claim. At that point, the agency sends the information to the DTRA, which decides whether the veteran's service record indicates exposure to high doses of radiation.
This process, known as "dose reconstruction," can take months and occurs behind closed doors, critics say.
It can be cumbersome and mysterious, especially for someone already dealing with a life-threatening illness.
Abercrombie's legislation, called the Atomic Veterans Relief Act, would add transparency by opening up DTRA's analysis methods.
There is no companion bill yet in the Senate. Abercrombie introduced his legislation around Memorial Day. He hopes it will pick up momentum as stories like Clark's circulate, and as lawmakers gain appreciation for the sacrifices of war through the prism of two ongoing conflicts.
DTRA spokeswoman Kate Hooten said the agency has well-established protocols for determining radiation exposure, and she noted that over the decades, many veterans have scattered across the globe and are out of touch with government health care networks.
"This is an important issue," she said. "We're always interested in finding out how we can reach out to the public."
To make the case for his legislation, Abercrombie has collected the narratives of some veterans who worked around nuclear tests and are suffering multiple cancers and other ailments.
Edward Blas, who lives on Guam, was stationed in the Marshall Islands during the cleanup on Eniwetok Atoll after 43 nuclear tests.
"The evidence was overwhelming that we were exposed to high levels of ionizing radiation while we lived on ground zero," he wrote.
Blas is anemic and diabetic and weighs half the 220 pounds he did in the service. But his medical claim was denied on the grounds that veterans who served there after the nuclear tests were not considered "atomic vets."
