(Fwd) Re: Nuke Site Workers Seek Compensation

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Franz was posing the questions based on one of my non-radsafe 
news distributions sent this morning. I'm therefore posting to 
radsafe in order for a dialogue to begin.
---------

Maybe you, Sandy, or other RADSAFERs can give me some additional
information to understand the following message:


At 09:22 27.02.2000 -0800, you wrote:

>
>Nuke Site Workers Seek Compensation
>
>LAS VEGAS (AP) - Fred Love didn't know he was piloting a 
>helicopter through invisible clouds of radiation when he swept 
>across the remote Nevada Test Site 15 years ago. 
>

What has happened at the Nevada Test Site in 1985? Where did the radiation
come from? I do not know of any atmospheric nuclear test at this time - the
moratorium came into force more than 20 years before 1985.

>His top secret work cost him an eye 

First time I hear that radiation can cost an eye! Before it was always
leukemia, thyroid cancer, lung cancer etc., which was unfortunately often a
real consequence of exposure to radioactive substances and radiation.


>
>Love, 60, was among more than two dozen people - some hobbling 
>on canes, others appearing in wheelchairs 

Again the question, what diseases people suffer from and how to connect it
to radiation.


- who spoke Friday at 
>an Energy Department hearing on efforts to extend federal 
>compensation to thousands of workers involved in the nation's 
>secret nuclear weapons testing program between 1951 and 1992. 
>

Personally I do not doubt, that a large number of people have been
irradiated and have incorporated radioactive substances to such an extent
that they might have contracted real diseases. 

>``It has had a financial and emotional impact on our family,'' Love 
>testified. 
>
>The hearing followed a Clinton administration proposal to 
>compensate current and former Energy Department employees at 
>facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Paducah, Ky., where they 
>handled beryllium - a component used to trigger nuclear weapons. 

I did not know about Be triggering nuclear weapons. Beryllium is chemotoxic
and not radiotoxic. Nevertheless it is connected to nuke site workers!


>
>The workers involved at the Nevada site are not included in current 
>compensation negotiations. 

What about beryllium at the Nevada site?


So a parade of witnesses at Friday's 
>hearing pressed their case before Energy Department assistant 
>secretary David Michaels and members of Nevada's congressional 
>delegation. 
>
>In a prepared statement, Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said the 
>government conducted the testing

Again my question, what kind of tests were done in 1985, which could have
harmed a helicopter crew?



I feel sorry for all people being sick and injured. To me it seems that
oftern people try to find deliberately a "reason" for their sickness. What
would be more suitable than radiation, when you find all massmedia full
with reports about the negative effects of radioactivity? On the other side
I think that in cases, where people were exposed the high radiation levels
deliberately and where even a small chance may exist that this radiation
might have caused the illness the responsible body should give compensation.

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schoenhofer
Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery), VI/8
Radetzkystr. 2
A-1031 Vienna
AUSTRIA

phone: -43-1-71172-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331


------- End of forwarded message -------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
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