RE: Compensation of survivors

[BERNARD L COHEN <blc+@PITT.EDU>]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, Stokes, James wrote:



>  First of all, I am not talking about soldiers who die in wartime

> situations. I was in the military for many years myself.  I can tell you

> though, that some military personnel WERE used in experiments,without their

> knowledge.



	--I know about those involved in bomb tests; their exposures were

quite small, and no excess cancers were found among them. I would be

interested in being told about other cases.



> I later worked at a U.S. DOE -Defense Programs Production facility where

> everything from the inside of the coffee pots, to the tampon dispensers in

> the ladies rooms were contaminated with radioactive materials.  These

> workers were NOT properly protected, and I can testify to that first hand,

> since I did much of the monitoring.  However, the individual workers were

> never told of the conditions that they were working under.



	--What were their exposures in mrem? I worked in Y-12 (Oak Ridge)

from 1950 to 1958 and can testify that great care was taken about

radiation exposures. My assistant was taken away from me because he wore

his radiation badge outside his lead apron, and no arguments were

accepted. The HPs had unlimited authority and they used it freely.

	I worked across the street from the beryllium machine shop and

had occasional visits there. I thought the precautions were highly

elaborate. I assume that the protective measures practiced at Y-12 were

not perfect, but all industrial occupations have some risk and I would bet

that the risks in working at government labs were less than the average

for other occupations at that time. 



> It should be interesting to note that the chemical plant workers at a

> particular DOE facility have a much higher colon cancer rate than the

> control population. Coincidentally, the particle sizes of the materials that

> they worked with would have deposited in the N-P region of the respiratory

> tract, and would have therefore been ingested.



	--I would be interested in numbers (and a reference, if available) 

to this situation. Is there a calculation showing that the observed excess

of colon cancer can be attributed to this exposure? Ingested thorium is

famous for causing liver cancer -- note the  thorotrast patient studies.

Did these workers have an excess of liver cancer?



  According to a document

> generated by the Health and Safety manager of that facility stated in a

> report that it was impossible to keep the airborne Th-232 concetrations

> below the limits without at least $325,000 (1957 $) in modifications to the

> ventilation system in the facility.  Those modifications were never approved

> by the then AEC. 



	--Was there a cost- benefit analysis made on this issue? That is

the logical way to address a problem like this.



 That proces was eventually terminated, but not because it

> was unsafe.  I could give you numerous examples, but most of them are

> probably still classified.  The fact of the matter is, those workers were

> never told.



	--I am not well acquainted with how common it is to inform workes

in every occupation of their occupational risks, then or now. Every

occupation, and every human activity has risks, and in the great majority

of cases, people don't think about them. "Unsafe" is not a meaningful word

for scientists unless qualified by numbers.



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