Document text
Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.
Page 2
of Hanford studies By KAREN DORN STEELE . Hanford scientists clashed with their critics Saturday night In a debate on whether Hanford nucl dr cers as a result of their exposure to Participants in tbe League of Women Voters forum also disagreed sharply on whether the U.S. Department of Energy should continue to control radiation studies of workers a t defense facilities. The debate, the first of its kind in Spokane, came at a time of intense public scrutiny of the Ener Carolina which correlated sometimesfatal lung disease in workers with urantuzg dust exposure. The General Accounting Office has agreed to investigate environmental and occu ational health and safety at all D& nuclear facilities “There is a conflict in the Energy Department between promotion of nuclear weapons and public health protection. Any research that suggests an increased risk to workers is in conflict with its mission,” said Robert Alvarez, director of the Enclear Power and Jeapons Project, during the Spowe forum. The guarding worker and ublic health at nuclear facillties l!ke Hanford. Sen. John Glenn, Mhio, and Rep. Tim Wirth, Wlo., have introduced bills in Congress whlch would take health and environmental studies awa from the Ener Department a n i give them to tE Department of Health and Human ‘Services and the Environmental Both Wirth and Glenn have nution fac i lig in their districts. A t the Rocky Flats wea ns plant near Denver and at tc Fernald uranium plant near Cincinatti, EnDepartment studies of worker 7 3 ~have recently been criticized for understating o r suppressing radiation healtb risks to workm,. The reason for the leeislation, say staff aides to the pollhdans, is that the objectivit of DOE research into worker Kealth & under increasing fire from a coalition of labor union and enviromental Glenn is bolding field hearings on his bill tn Cincinnati today. The nearby Fernald overnment facility has been crfticized in recent months for ex ing workers and the ublic to rtons of airborne uran!uxn dust slnce 1951, and for sup resshg results o€ a study condurPed by the University of North Ethel Gilbert, a Battelle biostatistician In charge of analyzing data on Hanford workers under contract to the Ener Departtention that the worker studies are biased and miaimiZe the effects of Gilbert said her scientific credibilitv would be at stake if she pub- “It would be ridiculous to do these studies without a high de of integrit .me DOE is not 1wEZ over our sKoulders. No one has suggested to me that I come up with a particular answer,’! she said. director of the Hanford Enviror mental Health Foundation, whit kollects radiation data on Hanfot workers, said it would “set the Han ford worker study back five to si! an” if Congress took it awa: That brought a quick rejoinde, Stewart, who SaiZTou had no dif Mancuso, a pioneer In tracking occupational exposure in the workplace, was the original scientist
Page 3
‘sIpbo&* into the rystem from the home wells If midences also hooked to the city water line. Those home wells In a rtate of disrepair could mibly put contamhants into the regular rp em. he said. hlayor Robert Brown has a r k 4 people who ;now they have the double water setup to conact the city, which will send out a worker to :hut off the well lines. Peo le who know of covered, unused wells in ials so those wells can be checked to make lure hey are not a source of contamination, Sheldon west portion of the house. The c a w of the flre is under Investigation. Young burn victim atable ported in critical but stable condition late Sunday at Spcred Heart Medical Center after receiving bums over SO to 40 pemnt of her body in a Saturday fire.. Law enforcement officers and fkefighten said Dezia Woods was rescued from a burning mobile home three miles south of Springdale by -aid. her father, Ingemar. nired by the Atomic Energy Cornaision in 1964 to study the health Zlear facilities, including Hanford. 3tewart. a scientist renowned for ’ler Oxford University study which -ays. sat on his AEC advisory comAfter Mancuso and Stewart published a 1977 paper which conclud4 that Hanford worken were sufiering a five to seven percent excess of cancer from their work, qrant. The Hanford segment of the worker study was then iven to Battelle, and the rest transferred to 3ak Ridge Associated Universities Gilbert defended the work done since Battelle took over the study. She said that with the exception of multiple myeloma, a fatal bone marrow cancer, the cancer death rate of Hanford workers is lower than normal. Several workers who received fair1 high radiation doses wer their ligtimes have died of multiple myeloma, she said. But the study has found no conZlusive link between very low lev4s of radiation ex ure and canx!r, Gilbert said. gsaid current xcupational exposure levels are .ion-induced cancers, or no risk at Hanford. But we’re saying that our stimates aren’t out of line with xrt said that she was be inning to ook at the exposures of f A . Jones Zonstruction Co. workers on the janford Nuclear Reservation. Alvarez said the nuclear industry .ends to use construction workers sometime exposing significant wrnbers during cleanup jobs. Of- .en, there is no followup on these workers, he said. Alvarez said Man- :us0 tried to get the Jones Conitruction workers included in the danford study, but was unsuccessStewart said her work with Man- “We found an excess myeloma risk and an excess ancreatic canbert has said that a few excess pancreatic cancers appeared in her earlier data, but dropped out over Gilbert said she felt it was unnecessary to conduct public health studies of the Tri-Cities area, as some citizen grou s including S p kane’s Hanford hu cation Acbon League, have called for in recent months. It is more sensible to focus on nuclear workers to look for a radiation effect, she said. Alvarez disagreed. He said a recent study conducted by the &vironmetntal Policy Institute on radiation exposures to the public around the Energy Department’s Savannah River, S.C. lutonium tion exposures to the general public 50 times higher than what the AEC had been saying. “There has never been a similar dose assessment done at Hanford,” he said. Without such a study, Energy Department figures of less than a .0005 rem annual exposure to the M-Cities from Hanford operations is merely a “hand-waving” figure based on computer estimates, Dot actual measurements, Alvarez said. Stewart said the current Hanford worker controversy is about at the same sta e as scientific opinion in ery that a single X-ray in pregnancy is sufficient to cause cancer in “Many tried to ne ate it, but to- “It is still our opinion that there will be eventually, for adults as well as unborn children, a cancer risk at levels now considered to be safe. It will take 10 ears to get there,” she predictea). She said genetic damage from radiation exposure may be a hidden problem that will turn out to be far more insidious than cancer deaths over The Spokane forum was or anficials often have said, has never ized by the League of Women botken r e udiated, althou h it has ers of Spokane Count as a sequel league earlier this year.riear establishment. rWuentPy been attacked \y the nu- : to a Hanford study puhshed by the John W. Collltoa, a e unknown, N6602 son, outfew hip amifatema1 Injuries ac llsted In aerlous but stable conditlon a1 Famil Horpital, 8 nunlng su rvbr mi( Collfton wan a n er a picku Mven by Vernon Ef kam mer, 53,& Spokane. He was not admlttcd to the hc the supervisor mid. Landkammer was westbound on the NE Highway about 11 a.m. when his pickup cr with a northbound car, troopers said. The driver of the car was listed as Mi way at Shady Slope,the Sta Some Supplles Umlted the last 3 Ycam The Key to a Successful