[ RadSafe ] Cancer suit filed against Los Alamos Labs

[Steven Dapra]

July 20

         What is "wrong" with the "information" in the article I 
wrote?  (It is below, dated June 22.)

         In reference to your message (farther below), a person is a child 
from birth until age 18, not for a mere three years.  Ryman did not work at 
Los Alamos Labs and no one has said that he did.  The correct title of the 
article in the Santa Fe New Mexican is "Deadly exposure: Plutonium-related 
cancers plague children of the Manhattan Project."  The link is
<http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Deadly-exposure>, (May 4, 2008).

Steven Dapra


June 22, 2008

A lawsuit has been filed against the University of California, operator of 
Los Alamos National Laboratories, and against the Zia Company, a company 
that was a LANL contractor until 1986. The suit claims that one Lowell 
Ryman was exposed to radioactive waste as a child and at age 63 died of 
cancer as a result of the exposure.

According to the opening portion of an article at Findlaw.com, "Plutonium 
released from Los Alamos National Laboratory killed a New Mexico man who 
was exposed to the radioactive metal as a child, according to a 
wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his daughter in Albuquerque federal court. 
"The suit, pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New 
Mexico, says the University of California, which operates the lab, and Zia 
Co., a maintenance and construction contractor, are liable for Lowell 
Ryman's death from cancer at age 63. "According to the complaint, Ryman's 
father worked at Los Alamos from 1950 to 1953. During that time Ryman 
allegedly played extensively in the nearby canyons, where he was exposed to 
radioactive waste, including plutonium. "Los Alamos released the plutonium 
from 1943 to 1964 while developing and testing nuclear weapons, the 
complaint says. "Plutonium exposure causes cancer, especially multiple 
myeloma, which Ryman allegedly developed as an adult before his death in 
2005."

The article is at this link: 
<http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/en/tox/20080429/20080429_ryman.html>. 
According to an article in the Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News, Ryman's daughter 
"said her father's doctors were mystified about the cause of his cancer 
until they talked to her about his past. "I told the doctor he grew up in 
Los Alamos, and he looked at me, put down his pen and said, 'Your dad has 
radiation exposure,' [the daughter] said." The link is 
<http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_9152106>. (How's that for a diagnosis?

The doctor never so much as saw the patient.) For residents of Albuquerque, 
NM and vicinity, this was reported in the Albq. Journal on June 18, p. C-2.

-----  END of my June 22 posting  -----


At 02:05 PM 7/19/08 -0700, DAVID LOSS wrote:
>According to the article that you wrote some of the information is wrong. 
>Lowell Ryman was a child from 1950 to 1953 so he did not work at the lab 
>he was 9 years old and lived down the street from me and my family on 
>Walnut Street . He was a friend of my brothers and they played in the 
>canyons. See news paper article from Santa Fe New Mexican titled
>"Deadly exposures plague Children of the Manhattan Project.
>
>Lynne Loss