Cancer levels worry workers at former atomic site Manhattan Project

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Cancer levels worry workers at former atomic site

March 23, 2002, 4:30 PM EST

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (AP) _ A state Health Department study that found elevated

cancer rates in neighborhoods around a plant that helped built the first

atomic bomb has former employees wondering if there is a connection.

Plant officials still insist workers at the Linde Ceramics Plant have never

have been in danger - not those involved in developing the atomic bomb as

part of the " Manhattan Project " during the 1940s, not those who worked there

later on when radioactive material remained on site, and not those currently

at the plant, now known as Praxair, as cleanup continues.

" They always said it was safe, " Lauer said of the Linde managers while

he worked at the suburban Buffalo plant in the 1950s. " But every year, they

came in and took samples and drilled in the ground. "

Lauer and former co-workers said they knew very little of the Manhattan

Project, or the uranium ore processed there for the nation's first atomic

bomb. They said there was never a mention of potential safety risks.

However, a review by The Buffalo News of dozens of government documents,

secret for half a century before being declassified a few years ago,

indicate the federal government worried about health risks to Linde workers.

Among the newspaper's findings:

_A survey in 1948 by the New York Operations Office of the Manhattan

Engineering District found 18 of 138 employees were exposed to " above

preferred levels " of radioactive particles. Fifteen of the 18 were exposed

to concentrations 32 times above acceptable workplace levels.

_Some low-level radioactive materials workers were exposed to " may produce

toxic effects on the body from a chemical standpoint, " according to the

project's in-house medical volume published in 1947.

_The medical team believed it could be years before some of the effects of

exposure surfaced.

In 2000, the federal government set up a pool of money to compensate workers

directly involved in the atomic bomb development project. Now, there's a

move to study the effect radioactive material had on sites such as Linde

since government's atomic energy projects.

Representatives of U.S. Rep. J. LaFalce's office hope the study will

help workers to one day share in the compensation pool, now available only

to workers at Linde between 1943 and 1949.

Critics, however, complain of bureaucracy that has slowed payments even to

workers directly involved in the atomic projects. Proving a direct link

between a person's cancer and their job exposure is all but impossible, they

say.

" It's a dog-and-pony show, " said Ralph Krieger, a former union president who

worked at the plant for 30 years before retiring in 1998.

Dennis Conroy, site manager for Praxair, which now owns the Linde site, told

the newspaper the company was unaware of the specific testing referred to in

the secret government documents.

Nonetheless, Conroy said there's nothing to establish a direct link between

the low-level radiation at the Linde/Praxair site and worker illness either

during the 1940s or later decades. Repeated studies done by the company as

well as the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration support

that finding, he said.

In 1954, Conroy said, the site was declared " clean " by the standards at the

time. In 1974, based on new standards, the federal government reported

low-level radiation did exist at Linde, Conroy said. A government-ordered

cleanup of the site began in 1995 and is about 80 percent complete.

" People do not understand radiation. We are very concerned about our

employees and our neighbors but there have been four scientific studies that

show no statistically significant excesses of disease, " Conroy said. " We do

not believe there is a health risk. "

Former workers disagree.

Tony Cioppi, 69, started at Linde in 1951 sweeping floors at age 18 before

working his way up to the carpenter shop and as a lab mechanic. He spent

much of his time at two buildings suspected to be radioactively

contaminated.

" When I started there, the buildings that were used (by the Manhattan

Project) were taped off and signs said 'Do Not Enter, " ' Cioppi said. " No one

to my knowledge ever said anything about radiation. " Cioppi had a prostate

problem in his 50s and is now undergoing chemotherapy for bladder cancer.

ph Cinelli, 68, of Grand Island started at Linde in maintenance in 1952,

and worked at the plant in a variety of jobs until retiring in 1994. He was

diagnosed with cancer three times in 11 years.

The former Linde workers said they became even more skeptical over the years

as they heard talk of the government removing buildings and soil from the

grounds where they worked.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press