HEALTH OFFICIALS TRACING RADIATION; SIGNS OF ROCKETDYNE PARTICLES SOUGHT IN COMMUNITY.

Byline: Douglas Clark Daily News Staff Writer

State health officials are investigating whether ``exposure pathways'' have allowed radioactive contaminants to migrate from Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory into adjacent neighborhoods.

Rick Kreutzer, chief investigator for the Department of Health Services, said his staff began sifting through environmental data three weeks ago in an effort to identify where more detailed environmental sampling should be done.

``Our goal is to try to lay out all the information that's been collected and summarize it for residents and officials,'' he said. ``(We'll look) for data that has been generated of contamination beyond the fence to see if there are exposure pathways to the community.''

Kreutzer said his recommendations would be released next spring, the same time the UCLA School of Public Health is expected to complete its study of chemical contamination of Rocketdyne workers.

The first half of the UCLA study, released in September, linked on-the-job radiation exposure to excessive blood and lymph cancer deaths of workers at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

As part of the state's effort, three Health Department employees visited the Santa Susana Field Lab for the first time on Thursday and got a briefing on the Rocketdyne cleanup effort, which began in 1989.

``We wanted to get a broad oversight of the area. We didn't have much information before then,'' toxicologist Marilyn C. Underwood said Friday. ``We'll investigate every avenue, then we'll see.''

Holly Huff, a resident of Santa Susana Knolls, which is adjacent to the field laboratory, attended the Rocketdyne tour with Underwood.

``I hope it was productive for them,'' she said. ``I got the feeling that if something could be done . . . they'll be able to find what they need and go from there.''

Huff is among the more than 100 residents, represented by attorney Helen Zukin, who claim that relatives' cancers were caused by decades of nuclear research at Rocketdyne. Those residents have called for a communitywide epidemiological study.

Although Kreutzer said the state investigation could lead to such a study, he and Underwood said it was unlikely.

``From what I've seen so far, I don't think it's very likely,'' Underwood said. ``Although I'm not ready to rule anything out.''

Until the tour on Thursday, Underwood said the only data DHS staff had seen were from the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Jewish studies center that is located downhill from Rocketdyne's nuclear research lab. A suit filed by the institute against Rocketdyne was settled out of court this year; details remain undisclosed.

Kreutzer said more data will be sought from such sources as the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the federal and state Environmental Protection Agencies, county public health departments, the state health department, and the records of municipal water companies.

But he said the quality of some data could be poor and incomplete.

``I'm fairly certain we'll find there are places where we don't have any reasonable information,'' he said.

The gaps in data could be filled by taking more environmental samples, he said.

``I see the investigation as having two aims. We should assure ourselves that regulatory standards are being met for clean air, water and soil,'' he said. ``Then, if we find contamination, we have to determine the source.''