[ RadSafe ] Cancer suit filed against Los Alamos Labs

[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.

Steven Dapra