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Feds won't accept exposure data that could help ailing Rocky Flats workers

By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Margaret Ruttenber with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, stands near Rocky Flats on Friday. She's collected data on the neutron exposure of former Flats workers.

Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky

Margaret Ruttenber with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, stands near Rocky Flats on Friday. She's collected data on the neutron exposure of former Flats workers.

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The federal government has failed to act on information that could help sick and dying Rocky Flats workers - or their survivors, the Rocky Mountain News has learned.

A year ago, the Rocky reported that Colorado officials have data showing thousands of Flats workers were exposed to the type of radiation that was supposed to automatically qualify them for medical care and compensation if they developed certain cancers. At the time, federal officials dismissed the data as nothing new.

But a state scientist says the federal scientist in charge of the matter has known since June that Colorado's records show radiation exposures that federal officials are missing.

The records are key for the sick workers or survivors because they show which workers were monitored for a particularly dangerous type of radiation emitted by neutrons. If workers had proof they were monitored for neutron radiation, they would qualify for immediate care and compensation for certain cancers.

"I am very concerned to hear that these federal agencies may have known about this information for several months," said U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, who has been elected to the U.S. Senate. "This information could be standing in the way of former Rocky Flats workers receiving the health care they deserve and need to stay alive."

But the top official overseeing scientific analysis of worker records for the compensation program disputes the contention that his agency is aware of a discrepancy in the records.

Discrepancies in records

Larry Elliot directs the Office of Compensation Analysis and Support at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He said the federal scientist in question, Brant Ulsh, told him he believed there were no significant discrepancies in the data.

"Basically, Brant learned the information they have is the same information we have as far as dosimetry information," Elliot said, referring to radiation measurements.

"That's not true," responded Margaret Ruttenber, a research scientist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment who helped lead a seven-year study of worker exposures at Rocky Flats. "I'm starting to think they don't want these records."

Mark Griffon, a member of the White House Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, said he was on a conference call with both Ulsh and Ruttenber earlier this year when Ruttenber commented on the discrepancy and Ulsh did not dispute it, though he did try to downplay it.

Conditions on data

Lane Christenson was a tool engineer at Rocky Flats starting in 1963 and continuing for nearly a quarter-century before he died of thyroid cancer. When Christenson's widow was denied compensation recently, she was told the government had no records of her husband being exposed to neutron radiation.

But data Ruttenber has at the state health department shows Lane Christenson was repeatedly exposed to neutron radiation.

Elliot said he could not make an assessment of the Christenson case without looking at the data. Colorado has been trying to give NIOSH the so-called "Ruttenber data" for a year, but the agency has not been willing to accept the state's conditions.

Ruttenber compiled the data with her late husband, Jim, who was a doctor and scientist at the University of Colorado. They did so with the consent of Rocky Flats workers and under the condition that the information be used for public health.

State attorneys say the compensation program meets that criteria. So all they need from NIOSH is a signed letter saying the data will be used only for that purpose.

But Elliot says NIOSH can't guarantee that.

"Margaret and I both agree that it would best serve the claimants for NIOSH to have this information and for NIOSH to use it in dose reconstructions," Elliot said. "But I'm not in a legal position that I can make this commitment in writing that she's seeking."

Elliot said if NIOSH had the data, it would have to consider using the data for other studies.

Untangling data questions

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, whose district includes many former Rocky Flats workers, called this response "one more roadblock" preventing workers from getting help.

Udall fired off a letter to Elliot saying that if he believed there is no discrepancy in the data, then he should provide his version "so that we can do a comparison in Colorado."

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor, which administers the program, said NIOSH had "exclusive responsibility" for untangling the data questions, but that Rocky Flats claimants who believe they have new evidence of neutron exposure should submit that to the Labor Department. The department would then send the claimant's case back to NIOSH for review.

If the Ruttenber data show neutron exposures that the compensation program overlooked, it could call into question the quality of all the records NIOSH has been using to determine which workers deserve compensation.

"It would make me want to say wait, we want to reassess the other information because we were told we had all the correct data," said Griffon, the presidential advisory board member.

Another anniversary

This month marks another anniversary for Rocky Flats workers. A year ago, they appealed a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decision to grant streamlined aid to only a small portion of workers from the site's early years, instead of the entire work force.

But in 12 months, the workers have heard nothing from Secretary of Health Mark Leavitt.

"It's just a sad statement on government inaction that something this important, that so many people have been waiting on, and there's not even the courtesy of communication," said former Flats worker Jennifer Thompson.

Timeline of a plea for aid

* February 2005: Rocky Flats workers ask the federal government to grant them a streamlined path to compensation, a so-called "special exposure cohort," because of faulty or missing records.

* June 2007: After two years of debate, a narrow group - those with certain cancers who worked at least 250 days at Rocky Flats from 1952-66 and "were or should have been monitored for neutron radiation" - was approved.

*September 2007: Flats workers appealed the decision, saying all workers with certain cancers should be eligible. The government twice rejected their letter on grounds that it was improperly addressed. The Labor Department says workers from the top secret Rocky Flats Building 881 were mistakenly left off the list of those who would qualify for automatic aid. The Rocky Mountain News reports that state data show workers from another 19 buildings had similar exposure records but were also left off the list.

*January 2008: Labor officials write new rules for determining which Flats workers qualify for the special status. Some families first told they'd be compensated are now rejected. The state records in question are not mentioned.

Comments

  • November 24, 2008

    6:43 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    TeresaBinstock writes:

    History question for high-school and college students: When did a major goal of the U.S. government become injuring its own citizens and protecting those who caused the injury?

  • November 24, 2008

    8:19 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    davies writes:

    I don't understand the issue with the preconditions. If Ruttenber has data that may help certain cancer victims, she should simply turn it over to NIOSH, and then she can monitor what NIOSH does with it. How can a federal agency guarantee they will only use the data for public health? What if the data includes evidence of misconduct?

  • November 24, 2008

    8:39 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    KelcyCo writes:

    I hope that come 20 Jan 09 that government employees get an attitude adjustment which I realize is predisposed to the word No because of who they are currently working for but I'm not confident it will automatically get better without stern new guidance. We are bailing out corporate America right and left yet we won`t do the right thing by our own citizens who did work for our national security? Says a lot about our society, doesn`t it?

  • November 24, 2008

    9:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ABlock35 writes:

    Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor, who oversee the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, must fire, with all deliberate speed, all of George Bush's political appointees.

    Assistant Secretary of Labor Shelby Hallmark (a friend of George's and a true Republican, who graduated with an MA in Latin American Studies from University of Texas), who heads the Office of Workers Compensation Programs, and Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation National Directors, Rachel Leiton and Christy Long, are just a few of George's political appointees that should have their bags packed and ready for "redeployment". We need a few more federal employees in Iraq. Their transfers to the Middle East should be swift!

    Anne Block, former EEOICP examiner and Attorney at Law (WA)

  • November 24, 2008

    11:11 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Scott writes:

    ABlock35,

    If I remember correctly these victims of Rocky Flats have been fighting the government (notice I did not say "my" government) for well over fifteen years. Maybe even longer. This is longer than W has been in office and maybe even before Slick Willy.

    Therefore, are you sure the culprit here isn't some mid-level Snivel Serpent (government employee)? You know, the ones that can't be fired. NOTE: I'm not letting the prez's appointees off of the hook, but when you start including Job For Life Snivel Serpents, then only God knows if anything will ever happen.

    Scott

  • November 24, 2008

    12:51 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Cowboy63 writes:

    Scott - you hit it on the head. I thought Rocky Flats operated from 1952 to 1992? The facility was no longer in production 8 years before Bush was even elected! However, yet again, "It's all Bush's fault".

    Here's a new drinking game for you: Every time some Obama spokesman, appointee or disciple makes the excuse "it's all Bush's fault" - take a shot. You'll probably have a good buzz going for the next 4 years.

    Free hint! Keep a close eye on Hillary if anything might potentially cast the Clinton administration in a poor light. She'll be screaming, "it's all Bush's fault" more than Obama!

    Leaders fix the problems, not the blame.

  • November 24, 2008

    4:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    HuntsmanTX writes:

    Scott and Cowboy63,

    The program in question, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), was enacted in 2000 and did not take effect until July of 2001. Whether or not either of you can comprehend it, the article really is specific to issues surrounding the implementation of the EEOICPA. So yes, Bush and his stooge appointees have MUCH to do with nuclear test site and nuclear production workers (and their survivors) being cheated out of monetary and medical compensation over and over again (some EEOICPA-covered employment took place as far back as 1943).

    Cowboy63, You actually thought they (the writer of the article and a person who posted a comment) were trying to blame Bush for what occurred at Rocky Flats decades before he took office? I knew the average Bush supporter was really slow and really naive but you top the cake. They are blaming Bush and his stooges for what's been done to workers and their rights THESE LAST EIGHT NIGHTMARISH YEARS, not what was done to them before the buffoon took office.

    Alberto Gonzales, Elaine Chao, Shelby Hallmark, Henry Paulson, etc, etc... the list goes on and on. During the Bush administration, it was all about who you know and how crooked you're willing to be that "earned" someone an appointment to a critical position. Whether they were actually qualified = trivial to Bush and Cheney. Harriet Miers is irrefutable proof of just how accurate the preceding sentence is.

    Does either one of you know Rocky Flats is but a small part of the whole EEOICPA picture? A total of 362 sites are covered to one degree to another (Los Alamos, Oak Ridge Y-12 and K-25, Hanford, etc, etc).

    Over 600,000 workers (WWII and Cold War combined) were involved in the nuclear weapons industry. That's counting production workers as well as workers exposed to fallout from nuclear testing (Nevada Test Site, Marshall Islands, Amchitka Island, AK, and Los Alamos).

  • November 24, 2008

    11:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ABlock35 writes:

    Scott:

    This program started in 2001 during George Bush's 1st term. See what happens when a person that never worked for a living is elected. Sad.

    Did you see the movie W? In my opinion, it didn't go far enough!