ROCKETDYNE'S CANCER LINK; `WE WANT ANSWERS'; REPORT CREATES DEBATE OVER RISK.Byline: Tony Knight Daily News Staff Writer Complete details of a study linking higher cancer risks to radiation exposure among Rocketdyne nuclear workers were released Thursday, prompting community members to call for a new study of the health impacts on area residents. The report by researchers at the UCLA School of Public Health The UCLA School of Public Health is the graduate school of public health affiliated with UCLA, and is located within the Center for Health Sciences building on the UCLA campus. UCLA is located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. found elevated cancer risks among the nearly 4,600 past and present workers at Rocketdyne plants in Canoga Park and at the Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
Simi Hills is located on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, United States. They run east-west and they extend 26 miles east-west, and 7 miles north-south. . ``Previous to this study, the people in the community have been very concerned,'' said Barbara Johnson Barbara Johnson (b. 1947) is an American literary critic and translator. She is currently a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University. , a Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. resident and member of the study advisory panel. ``This study just compounds our concerns. There have been numerous cancers and we want some answers.'' The Daily News, which first raised concerns about radioactive and chemical contamination See: contamination. problems at Rocketdyne eight years ago, reported Thursday the key elements of findings by the panel of nationally recognized health and radiation experts chosen to oversee the UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX study. A key recommendation was a call for a study of possible health effects in the communities - Simi Valley, Chatsworth and Bell Canyon - closest to the field laboratory that has operated in the Simi Hills for nearly 50 years. Experts hired by Boeing North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. Inc., which recently bought Rocketdyne from Rockwell International Rockwell International was the ultimate incarnation of a series of companies under the sphere of influence of Willard Rockwell, who had made his fortune after the invention and successful launch of a new bearing system for truck axles in 1919. , challenged whether the study was extensive enough and the company questioned the need for a community study, noting there is no indication that any health hazard health hazard Occupational safety Any agent or activity posing a potential hazard to health. Cf Physical hazard. has been posed off-site from Santa Susana. But state health officials agreed Thursday, in releasing the full report on worker health impacts, to follow up on the recommendation for further study. ``Our department will be working with the advisory panel over the next several months to determine whether a community study is feasible to determine the risks,'' said Robert Harrison Robert Harrison is the name of several men, including:
Rocketdyne officials said the health and safety of company workers was their paramount concern and they would assume responsibility for the health impacts of work-related radiation exposures. Past and present workers who had received highest doses of radiation would be closely monitored and receive increased medical support, and the health of all exposed workers would be closely tracked, they said. ``We're responsible for the health and safety of our people,'' said Steve Lafflam, director of safety, health and environmental affairs. ``Rocketdyne takes the results of the study very seriously.'' He pointed out that no Rocketdyne worker had been exposed to radiation levels above state and federal safety limits. Rocketdyne officials and medical experts hired by the company briefed about 500 workers on the study Thursday morning and were to conduct a second meeting in the afternoon. Meetings with retirees were scheduled for today and Saturday. Some of the most highly exposed nuclear workers said Thursday that they were not alarmed by the study results. ``We weren't forced into doing this work and we're a group of people who like what we do,'' said engineer Robert Hardy, 50, a 32-year Rocketdyne veteran who has received a lifetime radiation dose at the level where the study found some of the highest risks of blood and lymph cancer. ``The concern I do have is that there is a higher risk,'' said Hardy, a Simi Valley resident for the past 27 years. ``The company is going to be providing us with more medical surveillance and that's reassuring.'' State health officials, members of the oversight panel and the UCLA researchers presented the comprehensive details of the study at a press conference Thursday at the Radisson Hotel in Simi Valley. The researchers, officials and scientists also were to detail the study at a public meeting at the hotel Thursday night and a second community meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the hotel at 999 Enchanted en·chant tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants 1. To cast a spell over; bewitch. 2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. Way. The researchers examined the exposure records of 4,563 workers between 1950 and 1994, finding 875 had died, 258 from various types of cancer. The study found that cancer risks among workers exposed to external doses of radiation were six to eight times higher than past studies of atomic bomb atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei (see nuclear energy). The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alamos, N.Mex. survivors would indicate. Workers exposed to more than 20 rems of external radiation were at high risk for blood and lymph cancers. Among workers who had inhaled in·hale v. in·haled, in·hal·ing, in·hales v.tr. 1. To draw (air or smoke, for example) into the lungs by breathing; inspire. 2. or ingested in·gest tr.v. in·gest·ed, in·gest·ing, in·gests 1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption. See Synonyms at eat. 2. radioactive dust, more than a quarter of cancer deaths were attributed to those workplace exposures. Deaths attributable to radiation exposure occurred at doses substantially below U.S. worker safety limits, the study found. And it concluded that the cancer risks were higher for older workers if exposed when older than 49. The medical and industrial health experts hired by Rocketdyne questioned the study's validity, saying the number of cancer deaths studied was too low and some assumptions were biased. ``It's a small study,'' said health risk consultant Michael Ginevan. ``It involved 4,000 people. We have other studies that looked at 100,000 people that found lower risks.'' UCLA researchers Hal Morgenstern and Beate Ritz acknowledged that the margin of error, called ``confidence limits,'' on some conclusions were ``quite wide.'' Conclusions on the high-level external radiations doses were based on only nine worker deaths, and the conclusions on internal radiation doses were based on 15 deaths. But they said the study had some strengths in that detailed dose records were available for all exposed workers, there was complete follow-up for more than 30 years and death certificates could be found on all workers who had died. ``We have very strong confidence in the study results; we stand by the results,'' said David Michaels David Michaels is a pseudonym for the author of the novel series Splinter Cell. Created by American author Tom Clancy, Splinter Cell began as a series of video games for various console systems. Michaels is currently working on another Splinter Cell novel. , an epidemiologist with the City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY; acronym: IPA pronunciation: [kjuni]), is the public university system of New York City. medical school and co-chairman of the panel of experts appointed to oversee the study. In addition to further community study, the panel recommended that U.S. regulators re-evaluate existing safety levels in light of this and two previous studies of workers elsewhere that represent a mounting volume of evidence that the limits are set too high. Gerald Peterson, senior epidemiologist for the U.S. Department of Energy, said Assistant Energy Secretary Tara O'Toole had been briefed on the study results. ``There is now a move under way at DOE to push the exposure limits to as low as practically possible,'' Peterson said. Lafflam said Rocketdyne set acceptable exposure levels at 40 percent of U.S. limits in 1985, but the question is nearly moot An issue presenting no real controversy. Moot refers to a subject for academic argument. It is an abstract question that does not arise from existing facts or rights. since the company has ceased nuclear operations and is nearing the end of the Santa Susana cleanup. Concerns about environmental problems at the 2,600-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory arose in May 1989 when the Daily News reported that a DOE environmental survey had found radioactive and chemical contamination problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and stepped in and assumed oversight of the cleanup program at the field laboratory, the site of four decades of nuclear research conducted by the company and its predecessor, Atomics International, under DOE contracts. The DOE survey and subsequent testing and expanded environmental monitoring has revealed no evidence of a health threat in the wider community. Community members demanded the worker study in 1990 amid reports of the environmental problems, saying it would indicate whether there was any need to worry about a wider threat. ``We always said if the workers were fine then the community could relax,'' said Johnson, a Susana Knolls resident. ``However, if there were problems among the workers, then additional steps would have to be taken.'' Rocketdyne officials said a study isn't needed. In the early 1990s, the company funded extensive testing in communities within a 10-mile radius of the field lab by an independent consultant that found no evidence of the spread of contamination. However, monitoring on two Ventura County properties adjacent to the field lab found very low levels of radiation in remote areas not far from the plant boundary. Anti-nuclear activist Daniel Hirsch, a community member appointed co-chairman of the oversight panel, said community monitoring to date has not been enough. ``This facility over 40 years had accidents and released into the atmosphere,'' Hirsch said. ``We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what happened in the '50s and '60s.'' CAPTION(S): 5 Photos, map PHOTO (1 -- color) Past and present Rocketdyne workers, from left, Robert Hardy, Bob Tuttle and Neal Smith discuss Thursday's UCLA report. (2 -- color) Steve Lafflam, Rocketdyne safety and health director, said the firm takes the study of workers' radiation risk ``very seriously.'' (3) A cleanup crew works on the former site of the Santa Susana ``Hot Lab,'' where spent nuclear fuel Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant) to the point where it is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction. had been converted for weapons use. Gus Ruelas/Daily News (4) Barbara Johnson favors further study of possible radiation risk in communities near Rocketdyne. Gus Ruelas/Daily News (4) Rocketdyne Santa Susana plant employees wear ``film badges film badge (baj) a pack of radiographic film or films, usually worn on the body during potential exposure to radiation in order to detect and quantitate the dosage of exposure. ,'' right, to monitor radiation levels. MAP: Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion