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effects of r,adioactive releases f r o m the Hanford Nuclear Reserfakion d urf nga public hearing to determine if additional investigation o f updating with additional testimony) contamination fncidents i s required. 1 1 1 scientfst whp i s studying the Hanford workers, Tuesday told looking into radioactive fallout from Hanford, that she has t o detect any signiffcant ill effects frcm radiation exposure She said ktuddes conducted since 1975 fail to show that Ethel Gflbert, a Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratories f I among workers increase with increased exposure to radiation. proved that prenatal X-rays t o the fetus cause cancer i n the ch!ld's . later llfe, ;told panelists, "If you accept these ff n dings at fpce value, Hanford was a heatth fbrm,' "1 don't think it ' s safe t o say at this stage that there fs,:no cancer rfsk from low-level exposure t o Hanford workers," Stewart t o Or. Sam Mjlam, epidemiologist with the state Department of $+cia1 and Health Services, safd he had not been able t o detect excessive But he said he wanted t o study hospital records for thyroid k d pancreatic cancer treatments t o help trace what i s happening to"qeop Stewart sffd after the meetlng that If there i s now a thyroid; cancer ep1dTic f n the state f n the wake of the high iodlne 131 rele from the site during the 1940s, it might go undetected because t;ere no state tumor registry. Panel members raised the possibility Tuesday t h a t substances ,Tore dangerous thun iodine 131 were spewed into the alr 40 years ago:, Or, A . Jahes Ruttenber o f the U.S. Centers for Disease Control sa the amount of fadine 131 measured i n the air i n the 1940s and 59s appears t o have been too small t o account for the beta rad fat lo ? ~ readings recorded on vegatation i n the region during that time perio Ruttenber, who put together the panel a t the request o f the s$ate of Washingtoh, said no one knows w h a t the substances might have been Ruttenber said discrepancies i n the 40-year-old radiation dal a might have resulted from the use of unreliable, primitive equipment. suggested computer simulations and modeling t o check the data. 1 I tfe added that ff stronium 90 or cesium 137 had been releasedbflon with iodine, it could have significant health effects.Both elemqnts have lang radioactive lives and tend to concentrate i n the body f f ingested in food or mflk, Iodine 131, tends t o concentrate in the tyroid where i t can cau,se cancer. But it decays w f thin about 80 days, compared about 30 yars strontlum and, cesium to lose half of their radioactlvity. Str on ti yn Concentrates in the bones, raising the possiblity o f leukemia, while cancer rates i n the nearby res f dents.11 still alive (tho have been exposed to radiation, - 1 ; ' I t coulc! have been strontium. I t could have been cesium,' he cesium collec+ i n the muscles. 4 '
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The panel met for a second day of discussions aimed a determining what types o f studies need to be done to assess the Impact o f .J 1 radloactive releases from Hanfotd on the health o f residents of,,fhe Northwest. The group will meet through Friday. The sessions Thursday The recent declassification o f - Hanford documents revealed th$t large amounts o f radiatfon were released from the reservation dvping early days of operation when scientists were worklng to perfect ,duel weapons. Some o f the releases were tests aimed at tracking theI The statelof Washington released flgures to the panel Monday: ; estimatfng that a Tri-Cities child could have received up to 2,300 r Friday w i l l not be open to the publicl dfspersion of radiation. 1 . of radiation,fn the thyroid in 1945 from iodine 731 in milk. standards permit exposure of no more t h a n 1,5 rems per year t o