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Arms workers hail admission on exposure January 30, 2000 BY TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
This Oak Ridge, Tenn., uranium plant is one of many where workers were exposed to radiation.
(New York Times photo) |
The
federal government's apparent willingness to compensate people who got
cancer from working at America's nuclear weapons production sites hit
home for two northwest Ohio residents. Gary Renwand, Sr., of Oak
Harbor, and Bob Ault, of Wayne, O., two victims of the often-fatal
beryllium lung disease, said yesterday they were about as pleased as
when the Clinton administration announced in July it would propose
compensation for victims of their disease.
Mr. Renwand and Mr. Ault got the lung disease after working at Brush
Wellman, Inc.'s, beryllium plant outside Elmore. Brush, based in
Cleveland, is the nation's largest producer of beryllium, a metal used
to help make nuclear weapons.
In what could be an historic admission of liability, the federal
government appears willing to compensate thousands of workers who got
cancer from making nuclear weapons, as well as those with the beryllium
disease.
"I think they should be, too. . . . The government has lied all along with the industries," Mr. Renwand said.
"Why did it take the government so long to do something about it?" he
asked. "The government's been hiding information it had for so many
years. . .There's hidden things all over the country. What's going to
happen next?"
Mr. Ault, who has lived with the beryllium lung disease since 1960,
said he would be pleased if compensation is offered to both cancer
victims and beryllium victims.
But he is not confident either will see money.
"I have already decided in my mind it's just a lot of noise. I haven't spent the money yet," he said.
According to the draft of a report written by the U.S. Department of
Energy and the White House, the federal government knew it subjected
workers to an unacceptable risk for cancer during the Cold War - yet
did nothing to warn them.
The final report, described as the first time government officials have made such an admission, is due out in March.
An Energy Department official who asked not to be identified told The
Blade yesterday that the Clinton administration's National Economic
Council has spent months studying the issue of compensation for
workplace-related cancer and chronic beryllium disease victims.
It announced plans to compensate beryllium disease victims first
because the cause - beryllium dust - is easier to pinpoint, the Energy
Department official said.
The upcoming report will support legislation to compensate cancer victims.
"This process is supposed to help get us there," the Energy Department official said.
Some 600,000 people have worked at 14 nuclear weapons plants since
World War II. Hundreds of people are believed to have received cancer
from job-related radiation and chemical exposure.
Twenty-two forms of cancer have been identified, including leukemia,
Hodgkin's lymphoma, and those involving the prostate, kidney, and lung.
"It's not just radiation. It's radiation and chemicals," the Energy Department official said.
U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson: U.S. admits exposure.
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Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, accompanying President Clinton to Switzerland, was not available for comment.
In a New York Times article published yesterday, Mr. Richardson
acknowledged this is the first time the government is admitting that
workers got cancer as a result of the exposure they received in weapons
plants.
Sites noted in the draft report include several operations at Oak
Ridge, Tenn.; Savannah River in South Carolina, Hanford in Washington
state, Rocky Flats near Denver, the Fernald Feed Materials Center near
Cincinnati, and at the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national
laboratories.
Daniel J. Guttman, a Washington attorney who represents workers at 11
weapons factories, called it a "stunning" development, given the Energy
Department's long history of denying responsibility.
"The [Energy Department] spent God knows how many millions of dollars
fighting widows and orphans for years," said Mr. Guttman, who
represents the Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical and Energy Workers
Union.
He presided over President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Human
Radiation Experiments. The commission studied unauthorized plutonium
tests the government did on civilians during the advent of the nuclear
era.
"It's an admission that people were not only put at risk, but denied
the information they needed to protect themselves and, in some cases,
harmed," he said.
Mr. Guttman said there are many parallels between the upcoming report and the government plan to compensate beryllium victims.
Momentum for beryllium compensation was triggered by a six-part series The Blade published in March and April.
The series of articles, called Deadly Alliance,
documented how the government and the beryllium industry risked the
lives of workers by allowing them to be exposed to beryllium dust.
The series focused on Brush Wellman, Inc., the nation's leading
beryllium producer, and its factory in Ottawa County, where at least 65
current or former workers have contracted the beryllium lung disease.
Brush spokesman Hugh Hanes said yesterday he sees little significance
between the cancer draft report and the plan for beryllium compensation
because beryllium is not radioactive.
He reiterated his company's position disputing a link between beryllium and cancer.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World
Health Organization, announced years ago it considers beryllium a
cancer-causing substance.
Mr. Guttman said several recent developments in Washington have been inspired by The Blade series, including this one.
"I live in Washington, and I've heard about Toledo. I know about The Blade," Mr. Guttman said.
"This is a story that comes from the real people down in the bottom of
Middle America. The reason the folks in the White House are doing what
they are doing is because of the ground up, because the people who got
the disease and because you guys covered it," he said.
"These things come from The Blade series, there's no question about
it," Mr. Guttman added. "If it weren't for The Toledo Blade, there
would be no beryllium legislation."
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