[ RadSafe ] Cancer suit filed against Los Alamos Labs

[Dan W McCarn]

Dear Group:

Having been involved in civil environmental litigations as an expert
witness, sometimes it doesn't matter to a jury if a person was exposed to a
contaminant exceeding a drinking-water quality threshold or not.  If those
contaminants at issue can even be detected, or a case made that they might
have been present at one time is enough to move a jury to return a verdict
in favor of the plaintiff. This, of course, also extends into the more
emotive issues related to radiation or radionuclide exposure.

Dan ii

Dan W. McCarn, Geologist; 3118 Pebble Lake Drive; Sugar Land, TX 77479; USA 
Home: +1-281-903-7667; Austria-cell:  +43-676-725-6622
HotGreenChile at gmail.com   mccarn at unileoben.ac.at   UConcentrate at gmail.com


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of Perle, Sandy
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 4:18 PM
To: Steven Dapra; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Cancer suit filed against Los Alamos Labs

>>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.)<<

Steve,

Not an unusual occurrence. This happens more often than you think.
Worker works with radiation and becomes ill. Member of the public
becomes ill and it's the radiation that causes the illness. This trend
towards litigation is partly what I have written about in the ALARA
dialogue. Employers are at risk where radiation is a part of the work.
People do get ill, and, where there is an illness, radiation is often
suggested at the root cause, right or wrong. If employers or businesses
don't do what is considered prudent, they are portrayed as ruthless and
not concerned about the public's or their worker's welfare. Juries can
be swayed. I observe where employees believe that they have been treated
fairly at work, generally don't sue. If they believe that management has
not treated them fairly, they will often sue.

Regards,

Sandy

---------------------------------------------------------------- 
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies 
Dosimetry Services Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614 
+1 (949) 296-2306 (Office) 
+1 (949) 296-1144 (Fax) 

Mirion Technologies: http://www.mirion.com/ 



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