So, I've been following Rutherford's blog about not being able to have kids and this has reminded me of a situation in my extended family.

I have cousins who had to go through what Rutherford did. My uncle worked at a nuclear plant for a very long time. The Fermi reactor in Detroit. He was there when they had their partial meltdown. He and his wife had three children, two boys and a girl. My aunt was diagnosed with and died of cancer when I was a teenager - I didn't think about it then, but I have been recently. It was pretty aggressive cancer if I remember correctly. I wonder if it was related to my Uncle working at the nuclear plant and potentially bringing home radiation. My uncle died pretty young, too, in his early 60s (right after he retired), although it was of a heart attack. This is odd as both grandparents lived into their 80s (and my grandmother is still alive at 99), and the great grandparents also lives well into their 80s.

Both of the boys (my cousins) tried for years to have kids with their wives, only to find out that they were sterile. Both have now adopted babies within the past year - they had to be on an adoption waiting list for years in order to adopt a baby. They're very happy now but I can't imagine how crushing it was for them to find out they were sterile. However, I do wonder if that sterility was caused by their father working at the nuclear plant. I wonder if they've thought of that. I have many other cousins on that same side of the family, and there are no fertility issues.

Incidentally, the girl cousin (the youngest) was not sterile. My uncle stopped working at the nuclear facility a few years after she was born. She has had four children, however three of them have been diagnosed with some type of birth defect. Only one (her first) has been healthy with no medical issues.

I feel really lucky that we were able to have my BS. I look at my cousins and I wonder if they would have kids of their own if their father hadn't worked at the nuclear plant.