Mysterious Plague And
Illness Surrounds America's
Nuclear Plants
By Susan Thomas, Laura Frank, and Robert Sherborne
The Nashville Tennessean
9-29-98
"It's like the devil has been let loose in my body,"
A mysterious pattern of illnesses - from immune systems
gone
haywire to brain malfunctions doctors can't explain - is
emerging
around this nation's nuclear weapons plants and research
facilities.
The ill live in places unlike others, where poison bomb
ingredients
floated into the air, sank into the soil and leaked into
the water for
half a century.
No one has ever taken a comprehensive look at their
health - not the
federal government that owns the sites, the public
health agencies
charged with protecting their well-being, nor the
politicians who
represent them in Congress.
Scientists have been concerned for decades about
radiation from
nuclear production and its link to cancer. But the
illnesses emerging
now are something different.
In 1997, The Tennessean found scores of people suffering
a pattern
of unexplained illnesses around the Oak Ridge nuclear
reservation in
East Tennessee. This year, the newspaper found hundreds
of people
with similar illnesses around 10 other nuclear weapons
sites
nationwide.
''It's like the devil has been let loose in my body,''
said Freddie
Fulmer, 41, a former worker at the U.S. Department of
Energy's
Savannah River nuclear site near Aiken, S.C. Fulmer,
declared
disabled in 1995, suffers from a degenerative joint and
spine disease,
kidney ailments and a rare disorder that causes his
immune system to
attack, rather than protect, his internal organs.
''Every single morning my whole body hurts so badly I
can barely get
out of bed to go stand under a hot shower until I can
move around
using my cane,'' Fulmer said. ''And then there's the
weird stuff, like
once I had a fever for seven months straight. But, like
everything
else, the doctors couldn't tell me why or help me.''
He is one of 410 people in 11 states interviewed by The
Tennessean
who are experiencing a pattern of unexplained immune,
respiratory
and neurological problems attacking their bodies and
minds. Illnesses
include tremors, memory loss, debilitating fatigue and
an array of
breathing, muscular and reproductive problems.
The newspaper found ill residents and workers in
Tennessee,
Colorado, South Carolina, New Mexico, Idaho, New York,
California, Ohio, Kentucky, Texas and Washington state.
In many
cases, the ill were not aware scores of others in their
own
communities are suffering like them.
Activists believe many people are suffering from
illnesses at other
weapons sites across the nation, too. And top scientists
say the
newspaper's findings are disturbing.
''It is criminal. There is no doubt these people are
sick and need
help,'' said Dr. Victor Sidel, former president of the
American Public
Health Association and distinguished professor at New
York City's
Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Sidel, a co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning activist
organization
Physicians for Social Responsibility, added: ''The
government has
both an ethical and moral responsibility to come forward
and help
them as a public health policy, whether specific links
between the
illnesses and the weapons centers can ever be
established.''
Many of the ill believe, and some experts agree, that
their ailments
stem from exposure over time to low levels of many toxic
agents that
were released into the environment near nuclear weapons
sites.
But the ill have no scientific evidence. Their belief
stems from what
they see happening to themselves and others.
The government has traditionally required proof of harm
before
medical help is offered. So the ill must prove toxic
exposure has hurt
them, or hope the nation will help them based on
anecdotal evidence.
There's no question that ill workers live in places with
uncommon
quantities of contaminants: radioactive elements like
plutonium and
cesium; chemical compounds such as the solvent carbon
tetrachloride and cancer-causing PCBs; toxic metals,
such as lead,
mercury and arsenic.
The government acknowledges the contamination and has
launched
billion-dollar cleanup plans. But, federal officials
say, contamination
rarely reached workers or residents in harmful amounts,
although
they're looking for what caused health problems.
''Where there's a plausible connection we'll follow up
on it,'' said
Peter Brush, DOE's acting assistant secretary for
environment,
safety and health. ''Plausible connection'' between
nuclear sites and
worker health is being studied, he added.
But, those studies haven't keyed on people, looking
instead at such
things as levels of poison in ants in Idaho and turtles
in Tennessee.
Some scientists say it is time to consider helping the
sick.
''It's really inappropriate for us to simply use science
as an out, and
say 'We just don't understand this, we'll come back when
we do,'''
said Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, a member of the National
Academy
of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. ''We have to at
least be responsive
to people now.''
Many of the ill are longtime workers at complexes opened
during
World War II or the Cold War to produce more than 70,000
nuclear
weapons for the nation's defense.
''We were saving America,'' said Ray Guyer, 60, who
worked at the
Rocky Flats complex near Denver for more than 30 years.
Doctors
found radioactive plutonium in a bone spur from his
knee, but they
can't explain his dizziness, numbness, rashes or other
health
problems.
''We were young and believed in what we were doing,'' he
added, his
voice cracking with emotion. ''Now we just need some
help.''
A few of the ill said their health problems began three
or four
decades ago. Most said symptoms began in the 1980s and
1990s.
Why would people be getting sick now, years after Cold
War
weapons production ceased? And why would only some be
getting
sick? Certainly, most people around these sites remain
healthy.
''Those are two hard questions because we don't know
what
controls'' the start of disease, said David Ozonoff,
chairman of
Boston University's Department of Environmental Health
and a top
expert in tracking disease. Political leaders, like
scientists, have
differing views about what to do.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., whose state is home to a
major
nuclear weapons site, promised to ''encourage the
Department of
Energy to carefully review these findings and determine
how best to
act.''
But Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the only physician in the
Senate, said
''The health complaints gathered from people living in
communities
near nuclear plants certainly raise questions. Before
drawing any
conclusions, however, we must be careful to rely on
scientific
evidence.''
That is little consolation for Gay Brown, 57, who grew
up near the
Oak Ridge nuclear reservation and was a special
education teacher
before becoming totally disabled in 1977.
Now, Brown leads a ''pretty lonely life,'' rarely
leaving her house
except to go to the doctor or hospital for illnesses she
describes as
''weird things going on in my blood and immune system.
My bones
and muscles hurt so bad at times, I can't stand to be
touched. I've
got awful skin rashes that won't go away. There's the
thyroid
problems, memory loss, blackouts ... oh, just about
everything is
breaking down, inside and out.''