ILLNESSES SPURRED SUSPICIONS OF LAB'S NEIGHBORS : CLASS-ACTION SUIT CLAIMS THAT RADIATION, CHEMICALS DRIFTED INTO NEIGHBORHOODS.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

When Barr Mugdrechian was diagnosed with bladder cancer, it seemed like a stroke of tragic bad luck. Three years later, Mugdrechian is convinced that luck had nothing to do with it.

Mugdrechian has lived for more than 30 years within five miles of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the mountaintop complex where Rocketdyne tested jet engines and nuclear reactors. And he became suspicious after learning that more than 10 neighbors had been diagnosed with various forms of cancer in recent years.

So he and nine other residents of the San Fernando and Simi valleys filed a class-action lawsuit filed Monday, alleging that they were made sick by decades of chemical and nuclear experiments.

``I know people get bladder problems all over the world,'' Mugdrechian said. ``But there sure are an awful lot on this one street. I can't make a scientific judgment myself, but it sure seems like it all had something to do with what was going on up on the hill.''

Filed on contingency by firms based in Pasadena and Santa Barbara, the suit claims that bladder and thyroid cancer and other diseases have been prevalent in neighborhoods around the field lab. The suit asks that Boeing, Rocketdyne's new parent company, establish a fund to pay future medical expenses, to monitor the conditions of thousands of healthy neighbors and to pay for a full environmental cleanup.

Boeing officials said Tuesday they could not comment on pending litigation. But company officials have previously denied that the field lab poses any health risk to those who live nearby.

``We're waiting to see what it's all about,'' said Rocketdyne spokesman Paul Sewell. ``We had no idea this was coming. We were completely taken by surprise.''

Plaintiffs' attorney Tina Nieves said her side will establish a link between her clients' illnesses and the release of radioactive material during the testing of 16 small nuclear reactors from 1950 to 1980.

``There's very strong evidence of a linkage between the conditions we are seeing just begin to manifest themselves and the radiation leaks,'' she said. ``The fact that we are seeing these conditions in neighborhoods on all sides of the laboratory is clear indication that they are linked to radiation leaks at the top of the hill.''

So far, there has been no medical evidence that links operations at the laboratory with illnesses experienced by its neighbors. A comprehensive epidemiological study, scheduled to be released this spring by UCLA, is limited to Rocketdyne workers.

Officials who routinely review air emissions from the field lab have not detected dangerous levels of pollutants, said Karl Krause, engineering manager for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. However, inspectors do not test for radioactive material and rely on data provided by the company, he said.

``We don't have any equipment to test for most of what goes on up there,'' he said. ``But it doesn't appear there has been any air toxics problem.''