Portland State Magazine Winter 1991

Mecklenburg, who later died from cancer, was one of an increasing number of former Hanford residents concerned about long-term health effects cau ed by radiation. Cummins remembers the difficulty in trying to obtain in formation on Mecklenburg's behalf from the Army, Department of Energy, Atomic Energy Commi ss ion and other federal agencies. At the urging of Rep. Weaver, the Hanford Education and Action League-a citi zens group, and other concerned parties, the Hanford Health Effects Panel was launched in 1986. After holding a series of public hearings, the panel recommended that new studies be conducted to measure the effects of radiation exposure in the Hanford area. The federal government is funding two of the studies: a $25 million project that attempts to estimate the radi ation doses that were released in the Hanford area in the 1940s and 1950s, and a $5.4 million study aimed at examining the incidence of thyroid cancers in Han ford-area residents. The effect of releases of radioactive iodine 13 1 are often detected in the thyroid gland . Representing Congressman Weaver, Cummins recommended that a study be made comparing mortal ity rates between soldiers stationed at Camp Hanford and those assigned to Fort Lewis. The Department of Energy was not interested in fundin g the project, however, so Alice Stewart rai sed $50,000 in research fund s. Cummins met Stewart through hi s work with the Hanford Health Effects Panel. Meanwhile, Nussbaum talked to Pavel Smejtek, chair of the Environmental Sciences and Resources Program at PSU, about the poss ibility of getting the university involved with the study. "I felt this study was vitally important, and that we had the means to help," says Nussbaum. Smejtek agreed. In 1988, PSU granted Cummin s an adjunct research appointment, allowing him fu ll use of the un iversity's library and computer center for the study. Camp Hanford vets such as Raul Rodriguez, 65, anxiously await the study 's fi ndings. Rodriguez, now living in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, Cali f. , is one of many veterans who believe his stay at Camp Hanford led to mounting health problems that might never be corrected . PSU16 Rodriguez served in an anti-aircraft battalion at Camp Hanford from September 1950 to July 1951. His serious health problems didn 't emerge, however, until 1979. At that time he noticed that hi s sa li va glands were enlarged. In 1980, doctors removed one of the glands. A year later, doctors found a tumor at the base of hi s throat, where the fi rst gland was removed. Three years later, Rodriguez lost Professor Rudi Nussbaum his other saliva gland . Rodriguez is particularly dismayed by what he 's read about Japanese survivors of the Hiroshima and agasak i atomic bombs. Studies, he claims, ind icate that numerous survivors developed enlarged saliva glands long after exposure to the bomb ' s radiati on. Nussbaum, who has spent recent years closely examin ing studies on Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs, notes that cancers can have a long latency period in the human body-sometimes as long as 20 to 50 years. Rodriguez also has reported circul atory problems. Doctors have told him that condition stems from frostbite he suffered during World War II, but Rodri guez doesn't buy their assessment completely. " I think there's a link to my stay at Hanford and radiation exposure," he says. Rodriguez remembers vividly some of the scenes at Camp Hanford, where he worked close to the plutonium production plant fiv e or six days a week. "We used to see yellow, blue or orange smoke coming out of the stacks," he reca lls. "When the smoke got higher in the air it turned bl acki sh." He also reca lls the grisly scene of a dead cat at Camp Hanford. Years later, Rodriguez mentioned to a doctor that he saw a yellow-green substance emanating from the cat's mouth. "From the way I described it, he thought it was radiation poisoning," says Rodriguez. V ete(ans such as Pickett say ex-Camp Hanford soldiers are slowly starting to talk about their experiences there, as they learn more about possible radi ation exposure. " I'd say three-quarters of the people who had been up there don 't want to say much because many went to work for Hanford (Nuclear Reservation) after they were stationed there," Pickett says. Pickett is increasingly bitter about the lack of solid in formation about the long-term effects of hi s stint at Camp Hanford, and also the lack of compensation for later health problems. "Those of us who were stationed there have never gotten much recogniti on for what we went through," he says. "A lot of us were in the service to serve our country and the whole bit. But if we had begun to know what we ' re starting to know today, I think a lot of us would have a di fferent att itude." Cummin s believes the study, when completed later this year, could be the subject of Congressional hearings addressing veterans' compensation . A fo ll ow-up study on the soldiers is pl anned to be carried out over a I0 year period . Nussbaum hastens to emphasize that the study won 't settle the many issues concerning low-level radiation ex posure. More stud ies about the amounts and effects of low- level radiation need to be done, in particular, on large numbers of nuclear workers whose rad iation exposure has been recorded, he says. Adds Cummins, "As far as I'm concerned, the bill for the production of atomic bombs and nuclear weapons can't be fully assessed unti l we know whether people were harmed." D (Brian White is a Portlandf ree-lance writer.) '