K-25 worker ills--8/1/00 article from Nashville Tennessean

[Pambo1@aol.com]

Sorry for the tardiness of the post--I've been out of town a lot lately and 
got behind on my email.  --  Pam Watson
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Workers' ills linked to K-25; study balks at blaming all health issues on
plant

Dr. James E. Lockey presents findings of his study of workers' health
problems at the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge. (AP)

By Susan Thomas / Staff Writer

OAK RIDGE -- It's official: Workers have been made sick by exposure to
poisons at the Oak Ridge reservation's former K-25 nuclear bomb fuel factory
here, officials announced yesterday.

Some of the illnesses -- such as acute sinus problems, hearing loss and skin
rashes -- are common at many industrial work sites. Others, however, were
deemed "more unique" to the K-25 nuclear workplace.

Those include potentially fatal respiratory ailments tied to the metal
beryllium and neurological disorders, including brain damage, believed to be
linked to metals, chemical and solvents. One unidentified worker is also
suspected of having radiation poisoning.

"This has been an extremely difficult, extremely complex examination," said
Dr. James E. Lockey of the University of Cincinnati, one of three doctors
hired by the U.S. Energy Department almost four years ago to study the
illnesses of 53 current and former K-25 workers.

"I have done work at a great many industrial sites, and K-25 is by far the
most complex, largely because of its history."

The number of workers out of the 53 who have been deemed occupationally
harmed at K-25 was not released.

The doctors noted an unspecified number of illnesses seen among the workers
could not be tied to the workplace.

In some instances, they noted, medical science does not have enough
information to tie the symptoms seen among workers to substances to which
they were exposed. In other instances, workers were unable to show they were
exposed to substances that could have caused their problems.

Yet, what was billed yesterday as the "final report" from the doctors is not
final.

Beyond additional testing of some workers, the doctors' report contains a
number of recommendations that should be implemented before they can
determine whether additional health problems are linked to K-25, where
uranium was refined into nuclear weapons fuel from 1943-87.

"I'm not sure what I think," said Faye Hughart, a former K-25 cafeteria
worker who suffers severe heart problems and memory loss. "They haven't told
me I was one of the ones who has problems definitely related to the plant
because they have to look at other exposures. Truthfully, I'm just not sure
what's going on."

The doctors' attempts to determine the pathways by which workers were
exposed "have haunted us," Dr. Richard C. Bird Jr. of the JSI Center for
Environmental Health Studies in Boston said at a public meeting here last
night attended by about 100 workers and area residents.

The most recent pathway of concern is contaminated drinking water, reported
Sunday in The Tennessean.

Documents and maps obtained by The Tennessean show the purified drinking
water lines at the K-25 complex were improperly interconnected numerous
places through the years with other lines -- designed to be separate --
carrying impure creek water used to cool machinery and fight fires.

This creek water was laced with a variety of poisons generated from the
production of nuclear fuel. And, former supervisors said, in dozens of
instances the contaminated water mixed freely with the drinking water, which
was consumed by thousands of workers at the facility over the years.

DOE officials said they believe today that the water supply is safe.

Yesterday, the doctors called for an immediate, detailed examination of the
water system for "potential past and present exposures."

"If information is provided confirming cross connections, then the sources
of water supplies will need to be considered and potential contamination
releases will need to be" studied, the doctors' report said.

In other words, a contaminated drinking water supply could provide a new
link, or pathway, for how workers came in contact with poisons that harmed
them.

Other possible pathways of exposure that have accumulated at the huge K-25
plant since the early 1940s should also be studied, the doctors recommended.

Since 1997, The Tennessean has reported the plight of more than 400 ill
workers and residents at 13 DOE weapons facilities in 11 states suffering
unexplained illnesses like those found in Oak Ridge.

Yesterday's report officially rebuts decades of assurances by DOE that
nuclear weapons plants, like Oak Ridge, are as safe as any other workplace.

During those decades, the federal government has fought in court claims by
workers that their health was harmed by exposure to toxic substances. The
government's position has been that any exposures that occurred were not at
harmful levels.

That stance began changing earlier this year when Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson acknowledged that many nuclear weapons workers are ill and, in
some cases, the federal government was responsible. Richardson also said the
nation owes the sick workers the medical and financial help they deserve.

Last night, it was unclear when all the 53 workers will receive their final
medical reports, which could help them obtain financial and medical help
from federal and state government.

"After this long, it can't come soon enough," said ill worker D.R. Fudge.
"Some of the people are so sick, a week or month can mean the difference
between living and dying. It's that bad."

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