More news on Army Base

["Harry Hinks" <harryhinks@hotmail.com>]

Burlington Hawk Eye today...
Article highlight:
By Dennis J. Carroll
The Hawk Eye
· Report is first official listing of Middletown plant.
The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown finally made the A-list
Thursday as one of hundreds of facilities across the country that helped
develop America's nuclear arsenal.
It was a breakthrough of sorts for thousands of IAAP employees whose
work until recently had been virtually forgotten and their health
problems ignored.
Less than two years ago, the Energy Department told Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, that the Middletown plant never was involved in the production
of nuclear weapons.
Subsequent disclosures revealed that in the earliest years of the Cold
War, IAAP played such a key role that it was the only facility in the
country assembling nuclear weapons, and for 25 years assembled and
tested components of atomic warheads.
It was generally known by the residents of southeast Iowa that the plant
was somehow involved in the production of atomic weapons, and some
Energy Department publications made passing references to IAAP, but the
extent of the work and the hazards encountered were secrets well kept by
workers sworn to silence.
Only in the past year, as more of their colleagues continued to die of
ailments possibly caused by exposure to radiation and other hazardous
materials, have the workers begun to tell of their experiences at the
plant.
Former employees have related scores of tales about unsafe working
conditions and possibly contaminated materials being taken home or
otherwise introduced into the communities outside the plant.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson Thursday urged sick workers who were
employed at the nuclear weapons facilities to contact the government.
"The burden of proof is on the government, not the worker. We will be
open and candid this time, not like in the past," he said.
Under a program approved by Congress last year, employees of facilities
doing Energy Department work who contracted cancer as a result of
radiation exposure, as well as those who contracted a lung disease from
beryllium or silica, can receive government-paid medical care plus
$150,000. The first checks are expected to be sent later this year.
University of Iowa public health scientists are currently attempting the
daunting task of tracking down thousands of IAAP workers who were
exposed to radiation or other hazardous materials.

Harry Hinks
harryhinks@hotmail.com
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