U.S. Confirms Health Risks Near Hanford In '40S, '50S
RICHLAND - Some people living downwind of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation could have been exposed to 2,900 rads of radiation between 1944 and 1947, enough to cause cancer and other serious health risks, according to a report released today.
The report is the first step in determining whether the health of people living near Hanford may have been harmed by massive radiation releases during the 1940s and 1950s. More than a half-million curies of radiation were emitted from Hanford between 1944 and 1956, when plutonium production for nuclear weapons was just beginning and releases of radioactive materials were common at the plant now run by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Many who lived downwind of the 560-square-mile Eastern Washington reservation blame their ill health on past radiation releases.
Yesterday, for the first time, the federal Energy Department acknowledged that the radiation released at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the 1940s and 1950s was enough to pose a serious risk of illness, including cancer, for people nearby.
In the first phase of the study, radioactive emissions from 1944-1947 to 10 Washington and Oregon counties nearest Hanford were researched. Health effects still are to be studied, but the highest levels of radiation exposures were in Pasco.
At highest risk are infants and children who drank milk from cows that ate pasture grass in areas downwind from Hanford. Among a group of 1,400 such infants and children - who are in their 40s now - 1,200 could be expected to have been exposed to between 15 and 650 rads. Some who lived nearest to the reservation could have been exposed to more than 2,900 rads.
A rad is a measure of radiation exposure to human tissue or organs. Normal background radiation results in 1 rad of exposure over a three-year period. A person's health can be expected to be affected at levels above 9 rads, according to John Till, chairman of the panel that released the study. As many as 13,500 people in the 10 counties around Hanford may have received doses of more than 33 rads to the thyroid. The highest doses received were 2,900 rads.
Till said the high doses strongly support the need to study thyroid disease in the Hanford area. ``We strongly feel these radiation doses are large enough to justify studying the effects of radiation from Hanford . . . in the surrounding populations.''
Till did not recommend that a person take any action, such as consulting a doctor, based on these estimates. He said that within a year the panel will be able to provide individual dose estimates.
Of the 270,000 people who lived in the area during the mid-1940s, half received doses below 1.7 rads.
The counties in the study are Kittitas, Grant, Adams, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Klickitat and Walla Walla in Washington, and Morrow and Umatilla in Oregon.
Till said the estimates are close to those in preliminary dose estimates made by the state in 1986.
The report was met with immediate skepticism by some downwinders who doubt the validity of the dose estimates, by watchdog groups who say the preliminary numbers are so fraught with uncertainty they do little to inform worried downwinders about what really happened, and by Native Americans, who question why their lifestyle data was not included in the research.
To arrive at the radiation dose estimates, the researchers used complex computer models and not actual cases of illness. Two more years of work is anticipated before a person will be able to receive an individual estimate of his or her radiation exposure, based on where the person lived, his or her age, eating habits and other factors.
The technical panel directing the research admits that the estimates could change as additional information is made available and computer models are refined.
Jim Thomas, of the Hanford Education Action League, said the watchdog group is disappointed by the preliminary nature of the study. Among the criticisms from the group is that the study does not include all radioactive iodine releases, only looks at releases from the main nuclear-processing plants and not all possible areas of radiation release, does not include precipitation, uses meteorological data from the 1980s vs. 1944-57, and relies on poor information on milk production and distribution, the main avenue for radioactive iodine to reach humans.
The dose estimates will be used in a separate, federally funded study to look at thyroid disease, caused by exposure to iodine 131. Radioactive iodine, which collects in the thyroid gland, was the most frequently released material from Hanford, with 340,000 curies pumped out in the peak year of 1945. In comparison, the Three Mile Island accident released 15 curies.
The report by Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratory was released today by a panel of 18 independent scientists and officials from around the country who oversee the five-year, $15 million Dose Reconstruction Project, which began in 1987. Battelle is an Energy Department contractor, and many questioned whether the study would be credible because of the tie between Battelle and the federal government.
The study used information in 19,000 pages of secret Energy Department documents made public in 1986 and also previously classified documents released earlier this year by Energy Secretary James Watkins. The documents included environmental reports and data on spills and contamination incidents.
In the next phase of the study, Native American populations living near Hanford will be researched and further refinement of the computer models will be made.
More information on the study is available by calling 1-459-6676, or(800) 545-5581 (toll-free) or by writing the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project, Nuclear and Mixed Waste Management Program, Washington Department of Ecology, Mail Stop PV-11, Olympia 98504.
The state Department of Health also has a toll-free number to answer questions: (800) 525-0127.
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STATE'S ESTIMATE OF RADIATION RELEASES
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Chart shows levels of Iodien-131 radiation released
from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the 1940s
and 1950s. The estimates are from the state of
Washington and may differ from estimates in a federal
study being released today in Richland.
A curie is a measurement describing how fast a
radioactive substance disintegrates, in the process
giving off dangerous radiation.
Estimated curies released (in thousands)
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1944 - 54,000
1945 - 340,000 ------------------------------
1946 - 76,000 All years after 1956 under
1947 - 24,000 500 curies with .0004 curies
1948 - 1,200 reported in 1986
1949 - 7,000 ------------------------------
1950 - 3,999
1951 - 18,800 ------------------------------
1952 - 1,000 Source: Washington State
1953 - 700 Office of Radiation Protection
1954 - 500 ------------------------------
1955 - 1,100
1956 - 400
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