Hanford Testimony Revives Old Debate (City Herald)

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A congmdocurl wbcommhtea two two days of hearings on Tues J Y to produce reports on experl- and Thursday, and the ntr the government conducted on scheduled to rep,.t I tianford workers. Paw B1. the Depllmnent of b Deiiberations are scheduled tod vers i al 1977 stuy of Hanfa debate over the P ~ ~ r g yto track the causes of cia tial effects of radiation on among nuclear workers could d workers was resurrected in skewed. Mand during the second Of The group of nuclear ex el imony on radioactive emissions meting in R w this W,,g ,,n the nuclear reservatioa . Contlnued from Page A1 assembled b state officials and the termine if additional health studies ‘ DOE has maintained that studies of the general public are not warranted because workers, who a r e likely to receive higher doses, have not shown any adverse health efBut Stewart challenged the a m - racy of DOE’Sfindings,which focus on death certifkates. Cancers that contributed to the death of some ered the primary cause of death, won’t appear in the study, she said. Stewart, with Thomas Mancuso and Wrge Kneale, co-authored an epidemiological study of some 50,OOO Hanford workers employed between 1944 and 1377. Their findings indicated that standard risk assessments used to set o c ~ ~ patio ~ l dose limits are up to SO times too Stewart told the panel current methods to balance “the healthy Healthy worker effect refers to the likelihood that Hanford workers are bealthier than the general public. It is a central issue because the cancer rate among Hanford workers is lower than the general public. “If you take the data at face value, it makes Hanford something of a health farm,” Stewart said. The Mancuso study sparked a running debate. Most scientists have not accepted the findings of Mancuso, Kneale and Stewart, but much of the controversy has stemmed from other factors. . fects from radiation. ment’s offer as a change of h but Mike Lawrence, DOE’S 1 ford manager, said later del ment policy has not changed. Data is made available tc searchers, but only after the c nal study undergoes scientific review and is published, Lam said. Data on Hanford mortr rates is still subject to those a The validity of DOE’S mort study is only one issue the pi must address over the next days. Whether the scope of study is adequate may be a n Worker studies have centem death rates. Because damage tc th id is not usually fatal, the; sigby that Hanford emissi cause thyroid cancers is left answered, according to one H ford health official. “The Hanford mortalit sti does not tell us very much a k t occurrence of thyroid cancer,” f Ethyl Gilbert. “Clearly, we ca rule out the ssibility of thyr studies on Hanford workers. Urd Mancuso and Stewart, Gilber findings have corresponded to 1 estimates of risk from radiati that are generally accepted by i The attention on thyroid caoc stems from previously classified ports that were released by D( earlier this year. The 19,OOO pal of documents from Hanford’s 881 years of operations revealed lar releases to the environment di liminary dose estimates prepan b state officials show infants a DOE fired Mancuso, creating &,&en living in the ”&Cities speculation he was &smissed be- 1445 could have received a dose a y e his findings didn’t correspond radioactive iodine to the thyroid. with the department’s interests. high as 1,500 times current hnik. DOE denied the charge and a T7 NO one ha^ yet attempted t o t the investigating arm of congress, here during the earl years of Ha However, th charge still was were highest. Much ‘of the p a d made by criti4 of the nuclear in- questioning Over the past two da dustr andDOE’s failure to pro- has been aimed a t trying to deti vide &ta on Hanford workers that mine whether enough informatic Stewart has requested has fueled isavailable to calculaterisk. speculation. Efforts are under way to dete DOE apparently G‘mw k d to mine if it’s feasible for DOE workers. Some anel members workers, Gilbert said. A decision Tuesday descriged the depart- stillabout two years away. cancer baseccn this i dom ti0