Fw: 3 Mile Island Plaintiffs End Legal Action

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----- Original Message -----

From: " Kathi " <pureheart@...>

Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 2:04 PM

Subject: 3 Mile Island Plaintiffs End Legal Action

> 3 Mile Island Plaintiffs End Legal Action

>

> HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Attorneys for 1,990

> plaintiffs who claimed their health was damaged by the 1979 reactor

> meltdown at the Three Mile

> Island nuclear plant say their legal action is

> over.

>

> Earlier this month, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of

> Appeals refused to hear an appeal of a lower-court decision granting

> summary dismissal of the claims

> against former TMI owner General Public Utilities

> Corp. and related defendants.

>

> " There's nothing more that can be done to proceed

> with them, essentially, " said attorney Lee C. Swartz. " We doubt the U.S.

> Supreme Court would

> agree to hear the case. "

>

> No other major litigation remains from the 1979

> accident at TMI, the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident.

>

> The plaintiffs said their health was harmed by

> radiation that escaped from the damaged TMI-2 plant for several days

> before the reactor was brought

> under control. An estimated 100,000 people fled

> the region during the crisis.

>

> GPU and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials

> have maintained not enough radiation was released to cause adverse

> health effects, but some

> doctors as well as anti-nuclear activists argued

> that was unclear.

>

> " It just seemed to me there was scant, if not

> zero, evidence of a true corollary between the radiation and the

> illnesses, " former GPU president and chief

> operating officer Herman M. Dieckamp said

> Thursday. " So it was probably the right thing for them to do. "

>

> In 1990, a Columbia University study concluded

> the reported exposure levels were too low to have caused increased lung

> cancer and leukemia cases

> near the plant, which is on the Susquehanna

> River, about 10 miles south of burg.

>

> But a later study by Dr. Wing and others

> at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Public Health

> used the same data and

> concluded " downwind " areas during the accident

> had increased cancer rates. Wing conceded his study did not prove more

> potent radiation releases,

> but said there was little else that would explain

> the higher cancer rates.

>

> A spokesman for a watchdog group that monitors

> Three Mile Island vowed Thursday the group " will continue to pursue and

> track radiogenic cancers.

>

> " While this is a setback, I believe we'll endure

> and prevail, probably when I'm a very old man, " TMI Alert spokesman

> Epstein.

>

> Two of the plaintiffs were Terry L. Koller and

> his wife, Joanne, who was pregnant when the TMI radiation plume drifted

> across the Susquehanna

> River. Their daughter, Abigayle, was born with

> deformed feet Aug. 12, 1979, and they filed suit in 1986.

>

> Koller said he and his wife have known the case

> was " dead in the water. " Their daughter, who underwent two operations as

> a child, played basketball

> in high school and college and now does mission

> work.

>

> " We have moved on with our life, " he said. " She

> has moved on with hers. We're not thinking about the past. The Lord gave

> her abilities in other ways. "

>

> ---

>

> On the Net:

>

> Three Mile Island Alert: http://www.tmia.com

>

> Pennsylvania Department of Health:

> http://www.health.state.pa.us

>

> 2002-12-27 09:57:55 GMT

> http://news.findlaw.com/ap/other/1110/12-27-2002/20021227024501_32.html

>