Handord Downwinders and Thyroid Disease

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Hanford health project seeks former 'downwinders'

Officials want to educate those who lived near the nuclear site decades ago

about possible health risks

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

ANDY DWORKIN

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index

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Federal health workers are making a final push to contact people who lived

near Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the mid-20th century, when the nuclear

weapons manufacturing site leaked radiation into the environment.

Officials say these people -- sometimes called " Hanford downwinders " -- and

Northwest doctors all should be aware of special health concerns that may

affect onetime Hanford-area residents, especially as they age. The education

effort, called the Hanford Community Health Project, already has about 9,000

names on an information mailing list.

" But we know that there are many more downwinders out there . . . who we

think would probably be interested in knowing what their exposure was and

whether they should be concerned, " said Capt. , the U.S.

Public Health Service officer overseeing the program.

The information project is racing the clock. Its U.S. Department of Energy

funding will run out this fall. and others have created a Web site,

www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hanford, to help them contact new doctors and downwinders

in the coming months.

Children living near Hanford in the mid-1940s and 1950s probably got the

highest radiation doses, researchers estimate. Today, those people are

mostly adults ages 54 to 65. Project workers think some still live near

Hanford, but many probably have moved.

Longtime community concern

The education effort plays out against a long history of suspicion by

downwinders about the government's motives. For years, many federal

officials ignored or denied any possible health problems from the site.

Court hearings will begin April 25 in Spokane on a 15-year-old lawsuit

brought by some downwinders with thyroid disease.

Many residents were exposed to radiation when the site's reactors made

plutonium for nuclear weapons for more than four decades, starting in 1944.

That process released pollutants including a radioactive form of the element

iodine called I-131.

People need iodine to live, especially so the thyroid gland can make

hormones that regulate the body's metabolism. People exposed to I-131 can

incorporate the radioactive iodine in their bodies, and studies indicate

that large doses can cause thyroid cancer or other thyroid diseases.

Federal scientists have estimated iodine releases and think the biggest risk

is to children who lived downwind of Hanford in , Benton or lin

counties from 1944 through 1972. Children are at higher risk because, for

their body weight, they probably ate more milk, fruits and vegetables

contaminated with iodine. Cows and goats that grazed on contaminated

pastures concentrated the radioactive iodine in their milk, posing the

biggest threat.

Degree of threat debated

The degree of that threat to Hanford-area residents is hotly debated. Many

studies show an increase in thyroid cancers from exposure to radioactive

iodine, such as after the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in the former

Soviet Union. The National Cancer Institute estimates that above-ground

nuclear tests in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s could cause 49,000 excess

cases of thyroid cancer across 160 million U.S. residents.

On the other hand, a 2002 study of Hanford downwinders by the U.S. Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention and Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer

Research Center found few problems, though the estimated iodine dose from

Hanford roughly equaled that from the Nevada tests.

The congressionally mandated report, the main study of Hanford downwinders'

health, said all research participants had roughly the same risk of cancer

and other thyroid diseases, no matter how much iodine they were exposed to.

Although the researchers found thyroid problems, they reported " no

indication that the rates of disease . . . are any higher than what have

been reported around the world. "

Project to clear up confusion

The 2002 study relieved some, but a follow-up survey by the CDC " found there

was a high percentage of people who just didn't know where to go, didn't

know what to believe, " said Moka Pantages, a spokeswoman for the community

health project.

The project was created to address those doubts, said.

Organizers started a few small health studies -- including ones looking at

heart conditions and autoimmune disease -- while focusing mostly on

education and outreach. That does not mean reassuring people everything is

fine, despite the 2002 study, said. In fact, he said, downwinders

face many difficult health questions, such as whether they should choose

more aggressive treatment if they discover a health problem, such as a lump

on their thyroid.

The project focuses on thyroid problems because that gland is so sensitive

to I-131, though " downwinders have many, many health concerns " besides

thyroid problems, said.

Much of the project's work is educating doctors, many of whom weren't born

when Hanford's biggest radiation releases happened, said. They need

to know that some of their patients have special risks to be considered. To

that end, the project just mailed a guideline on thyroid treatment for

downwinders to more than 26,000 doctors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and

Montana, he said.

Doctors or downwinders interested in learning more about Hanford and health

can request information at the project's Web site or by calling

1-. Anyone who registers will get a packet of basic information.

The Web site has more detailed information as well as a map of areas

affected and a quiz that lets people estimate their exposure, to see whether

they are downwinders.

Andy Dworkin: ; andydworkin@...