Re: FACTS ABOUT TENNESSEE ILLNESSES

[EASlavin@aol.com]

Dear Ron:
Thank you for speaking out.  I appreciate your balanced approach.  I think 
most HPs try to do their best and I have recently had the honor to represent 
one in my first jury trial (fired after DOE's consultant psychiatrist said 
she was paranoid, delusional and psychotic for supposing there were 
environmental problems at K-25.  I don't reckon the levels in Oak Ridge are 
that miniscule,  what with 12 million cubic feet of radioactive waste, 4.2 
million pounds of mercury, and levels of cyanide (urine thiocyanate) in at 
least workers that are eight times what a healthy  non-smoker should have.   
At least 55  K-25 sick workers is that at least 55 of them have high levels 
of cyanide in their bodies, some eight times what a normal non-smoker should 
have.   Lockheed Martin Medical Director  Dr. Conrad Daniel claimed,  "There 
was no [cyanide] exposure that we knew of.  There was no need to do such 
samples."   Dr. Conrad stated, "I certainly wouldn't have condoned his 
testing" for cyanide because "[t]here is no source.  We had no source in our 
occupational setting. "  Dr. Conrad protests, "thiocyanate is a result of 
cyanide and thiocyanate occurring in lots of areas.  You can get those in 
cabbage.  You can find them in fruits.  Beans..... smoking cigarettes."   In 
reality, workers at K-25 probably did not get their cyanide from fruits, 
beans, or smoking cigarettes.  In fact, there were exposures, there was 
acetonitrile (a cyanide compound) burned at the TSCA Incinerator and there 
was cyanide and cyanide products present at the K-25 site. 

The K-25 Hazardous Materials Information System shows that there was 
9,876,543 pounds of acetonitrile present at K-25 on May 9, 1996.  That is a 
"source."  In addition, a December 1999 report on K-25 by the DOE Office of 
Oversight for Environment, Safety and Health found that, at K-25 there is 
over 91,000 gallons of acetonitrile in mixed sludges and the K-25 worst case 
scenarios include the unmitigated release of "significant quanties of 
chlorine gas," as well as nuclear criticalities from uranium remaining in 
process equipment.

These facts were concealed from the K-25 workers.   More details are in my 
March 2000 written testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, 
"DOE's Toxic Hostile Working Environment Violates Human Rights."  It will be 
web-posted soon, and I will make available the web address.

Again, I think radiation is not the biggest concern in Oak Ridge -- it is the 
toxic chemicals and the combination of all these materials and four 
incinerators right  under the plume of TVA's massive Kingston and Bull Run 
powerplants.  ALARA should be applied to toxic chemicals.  

Fortunately, K.Z. Morgan, the father of health physics inculcated a mature 
way of dealing with radiation, despite what the National Safety Council 
reported in 1948 -- a tendency of local managers to feel fatalistic about the 
risks, not unlike the "local snake-handling cults."

With kindest regards,

Ed Slavin

In a message dated 04/06/2000 12:29:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Ron.Lavera@nypa.gov writes:

<< ubj:  RE: FACTS ABOUT TENNESSEE ILLNESSES
 Date:  04/06/2000 12:29:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:  Ron.Lavera@nypa.gov (Lavera, Ron)
 Sender:    radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
 Reply-to:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
 To:    radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu (Multiple recipients of list)
 
 Mr. Slavin
 
 I read your letter with great interest.  As a Health Physics professional, I
 too am concerned about the health and welfare of the people in the area
 around Tennessee.  I think most Health Physicist care a great deal about
 these types of issues.  It is one of the reasons we selected and remain in
 this field.
 
 I do agree with your statement regarding the rapid and vigorously negative
 comments that may arise when "radiation" health effects are suggested.  We,
 as professionals, should ensure that we maintain an open mind with respect
 to developments in the science.  I believe that our failure to maintain, and
 communicate, that perspective is one of the reasons that we are not well
 received by the press and the public.
 
 On the other hand, the press and the public, are all too willing to assume
 every debilitating illness is due to radiation.  I am quite willing to
 believe that residents in the Oak Ridge area are suffering from a number of
 health issues.  Your comment regarding the "witches brew" is quite apt.
 There are a number of confounding environmental factors present in the area.
 To assign the end result to "radiation exposure" is misleading and
 inappropriate.  Environmental restoration, and preferably preservation,
 should  be a priority.  But focusing on miniscule and inconsequential levels
 of ANY environmental contaminant is not appropriate.  Every dollar that is
 needlessly spent chasing these low levels of contaminants is a dollar not
 spent finding and fixing the real areas of concern or investing in proven
 life saving resources such as ambulances, drug rehabilitation programs,
 schools and job education programs.
 
 There are parties on both sides of these types of issues that do little to
 help resolve the actual problems.  Those of us in the HP profession that are
 too quick on the attack are just as bad as the non-professional HPs that
 rely too readily on poorly performed studies to support their particular
 point of view.  Both positions merely serve to more firmly entrench the
 other party.
 
 
 ...  mine and mine alone...
 
 Ron LaVera
 Lavera.r@nypa.gov >>
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