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EDITORIAL : COVER-UP OR GOOF UP? HEALTH DEPARTMENT WITHHELD VITAL REPORT, AND THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE.


THE state Department of Health has known for two years that people living around Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
  • The Santa Susana Mountains in southern California
  • Santa Susana Pass, running through the abovementioned mountains
  • Santa Susana Field Laboratory, near Los Angeles, a test facility for rockets and (formerly) nuclear reactors
 Field Lab suffered higher incidences of cancer.

Yet the department inexplicably told no one.

Officials defended their decision, saying they didn't know the causes, so they didn't want to warn people.

How absurd.

That's like saying if your doctor finds you have cancer, but he doesn't know how you got it, he won't inform you so you can weigh the options.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American politician, and a former child actress. She is currently a Democratic member of the California State Senate, representing the highly urbanized 23rd district in Los Angeles County and parts of southern  called the department's actions ``unconscionable Unusually harsh and shocking to the conscience; that which is so grossly unfair that a court will proscribe it.

When a court uses the word unconscionable to describe conduct, it means that the conduct does not conform to the dictates of conscience.
.''

She's absolutely right.

The Encino Democrat then called for the dismissal of the Department of Health's three top administrators overseeing health investigations at Rocketdyne, and pressed for a long-called-for health study of the community.

Gov. Gray Davis should act swiftly and severely to cut out the cancer of contempt for the public's health and safety at the health department.

The DHS DHS Department of Homeland Security (USA)
DHS Department of Human Services
DHS Department of Health Services
DHS Demographic and Health Surveys
DHS Dirhams (Morocco national currency) 
 has known for a decade - following disclosure in the Daily News on May 14, 1989 - that toxic contamination existed in soil at the facility where radioactive and rocket fuel research has been conducted for more than 50 years.

And yet the DHS consistently has stalled, fumbled and ultimately refused to do its duty to protect residents and workers.

The state Department of Health seems horribly infected with bureaucratic bu·reau·crat  
n.
1. An official of a bureaucracy.

2. An official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure.



bu
 malaise.

And the only sure-fire cure is a thorough housecleaning house·clean·ing  
n.
1. The cleaning and tidying of a house and its contents.

2. Informal Removal of unwanted personnel, methods, or policies in an effort at reform or improvement.
. Davis should start at the top.

Next, the governor should order a comprehensive investigation and then review whether more state health workers should be relieved of their duties, before there's a health crisis.

In case the bureaucrats need to be reminded, we're talking real lives here - not simply statistics on paper.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1999, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Article Type:Editorial
Date:Apr 18, 1999
Words:276
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