RE: Sandy Perle - TN Illnesses

[Cheryll Dyer <cherylldyer@yahoo.com>]

Sandy:

I probably got a bit too carried away in my last post.
 Please forgive.  Mr. Slavin is very correct in his
statements regarding the entire work force at the DOE
facilities here in Oak Ridge. There are hundreds of
workers who are ill but are unwilling to move out of
their comfort zone.  This is typical in this area. 
They fear for their families and for themselves.  They
"need" the money provided by their jobs at the
"plants" and do not know where they can make this kind
of money elsewhere.  They aren't told of the dangers
to their health and safety.  What they do see as being
"unsafe" is overlooked because of the money.

I am one of very few who were willing to stand up and
try to make things right and safe.  The reason I
stayed was not because of the money but because of
principal.  I had worked for the Tennessee OSHA before
going out to the "plants".  I knew right from wrong. 
I knew safety and health hazards.  I knew the "Right
to Know" law.  I stayed because I feared for my
neighbors, my co-workers, my friends, my family.  My
moral obligation was to try to make things right and
safe.  

I did not know I was being exposed to numerous toxins,
chemicals and heavy metals at the time it was
happening.  Only after individual occurrences did I
question what was happening.  And, after each
occurrence, I was told lies, presented with false
sampling and told to "shut up".

The workers who have spoken up about this issue are
not after the "money".  We are after the admittance by
the DOE that they knew people were being exposed to
toxins, chemicals and heavy metals and did nothing to
protect them.  We want to make sure future exposures
do not come about because of lax safety/health
procedures.  Joe Carson, with the DOE, knows all to
well how things are covered up and pushed aside all in
the name of money.

This isn't something that has happened all of a
sudden.  It has been happening for 60 years.  In 1969,
there was a group who traveled to D.C. to express
their concerns about this very thing.  Nothing ever
came of that trip.  All these years later, over a
hundred folks became ill from exposures to substances
we were not told about.  This group of folks ended up
together and researched what could possibly have
caused the illnesses.  The by-products of the nuclear
perations were very much suspect.  In this group of
people there are secretaries, engineers, health
physics, industrial hygiene, janitors, laborers, waste
management, pollution control, guards, managers,
firefighters, clerks, cashiers, cafeteria workers, and
the list goes on.  When we all started mapping out
what was wrong at certain places within the plant, the
puzzle started fitting.  Why would a secretary have
the same type illnesses as a janitor?  

It has been a long five years but we are finally
seeing some action (at least we hope) in getting
medical treatments and putting a stop to the exposures
at the facilities.  We just want help for ourselves
and for those who are still being put in harm's way. 
Five years and we have yet to be "tested" for the
exposures.

Cheryll Dyer

=====
Please, "sign" our Petition to the U.S. Government --
http://che-or.8m.com/10-30-98Petition.html

The Tennessean's articles on toxic exposures:  http://www.tennessean.com/special/oakridge/part3/frame.shtml

Coalition for a Healthy Environment --
http://che-or.8m.com/che.html

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