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Panel gives official bo& to By UNOA ROACH MONROE west didn’t need 13 hand-picked arpcrts to find out tbat radiation might have hurt some people living near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the 14po9. I But it did need the W o r d Health Etrects Panel’s mantle of scientifid authority t o the expensive process of detedinq any ndia. don damfm. -It also required that Analysis cious pubk that something W y may be &ne about their cancems. “A lot of the recommendations perhaps muld have betn hid out by a group of whalcal state, ltxd and Ladfan people, but the recommendations would probabIy igw of the radiaiioa control W n of the was released in the Three Mile Island The panel‘s recommendation waq predict. able sot only becaw of the magnitude of the i&e la1 releases but also because of what Dr. A James Rutte w auS the phe That is, when people am W d they have been hamud by SOmethtDQ over whch they have no conuol, sometimes the best soludpn iS to do a study - even if it‘s one that should have been done 20 ar more years ago. Ruttenber is ?.heU.S Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist who helped set up the panel lor the Ranford Historical Documents Revirw Committee, a regional group. Study feared uncertain He and p e l members at various time expressed concern tbat so nuny people have moved from the Tri-Citk and so much time has passed that a shady might not be able to fIod any health effects that might have operations. Thit care me as k as fai it pa !%$dativesupport dscal support rad per- “A obbd working denaltion of a c a m ; ’ er health srudy h par irps federal funding,“ P u i s said phe is an effect so large tiat even an epide- the concern that a f Mer a fourday marathon of’meetings miologlcal study can detect i6” said David mentalists a$d ha& le= the p;inel recammended Frtday w b t . hoW of the Boston University School of .made for years. lad beep a virtnal certainty Prom the SM: Pub& Health, as quoted recently ln Tech- Nowhere wq this 9m the region look for thyroid problems nologo Review mdrm.rlne. t h e recommendadon xused by the iodiae 131 lallout. In the end, the panel decided that the ob e f k ~ ”This @&nec -& the 19409 and ’509. Hanford released stacles probably could be overcome. Some ods centers on how b nore than 5oo.OOO curie of iodine 131 into membvs alsa found ScienzSc excitementin simply b $ e the pt he air. That is thousands of t i m ~more thaa the prospect of @-ound-bre9kinghealth stud- than the generd popu up @e group from I the states. But it s on kveral bus. ort knocked some %e public from its y worded phrase is but it is based on no mked like the Ust of re apparent tban in XI abdtb study is e lo. it are healtber
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All ~Stewart.a British mher who hbs led the critics and who W e d on % day, beamed and gave a Mum hant saIute when she lemd Iate Thurs&y that tbe panel had sided with her in the l o n g - m The panel urged the Energy Department tr, stop focusing on Just fatal cancer among its workers,and also to allow all researchers - that is, Stewart and her colleaguq -rccess.to ib raw data on the health of its workers. Stewart has been unable to grin access to the hfomdon. It also adopted l;mguage that itr author, Vietchau Nwycu an environmental consul. taut to the Yakima Indian Nadon, Wended to push the reservation into a Superfund. type cleanup of its mixed chemical and radid&e waste sites. The Superfund i s the d the nation’s moa hazardaus dumps. “here i s some question on whather Hmford could be put on the Superfund list -but bting compared to its notorious membership was embarrassingfor a resemation that has been trying to deaa up its public act. Wdhington s o d Oregon state officiab now face the task of conveying the nuance of epidemiology to the public. They fear pee ple will expect ipttant answers &om a proc. ess that could take several years and end up doing a rrliable srudp sdll could prevenr one For instfulce. fh pic i almost noneristent in Eastern W?sbingto$. Tbfo means researchers will have to find another way to gauge how prefalent tlie thyroid &$orders wiil be even If at ledst 100 people with lems and a hlgh risk of “easiest” type of srudy, called a c.aGconq In a case-control study, people wit thyroid disorders would be matched *, people mthout thyroid problems to sei whether radiation can be linked to th( through several mam step Wore decision on designing a study can be mide. Th Washington, Omgon and Indiaa m i repn sentatives on the Word HisroGcal Doc uments Reaw Committee will copider tb recommendations at meetings in rat October and early December. s@d Terr Husseman. director of the Washingto ofkeof Nudur Wane ,htamgemeht I ’After that tt could be as long as a ye bcfore a thyroid study cauid begla.‘ III tfie meantime, &e word k+th I tectS Panel appears to have made a list recommendarions that will be vcult ocamence of the Illnesses. 1 1