TAB E ___DRAFT _ FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY___ MEMORANDUM TO: Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments FROM: Advisory Committee Staff DATE: February 9, 1995 RE: Outreach Panel Meeting and Visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory Some fifty citizens, and officials of Los Alamos National Laboratory, spoke at an outreach meeting at the Sweeney Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 30. Drs. Reed Tuckson, Ruth Macklin and Duncan Thomas attended the panel meeting. Dr. Thomas and Dr. Eli Glatstein attended a series of briefings at Los Alamos National Laboratory on January 31. The following summarizes key points made by the public comment participants in the panel meeting, and then briefly summarizes key points made at the Los Alamos briefings. I. SANTA FE PANEL A. Uranium miners Stewart Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, spoke on behalf of Navajo uranium miners. He noted the AEC's desire not to alarm the miners, and that the first warning miners received from the PHS was a 1959 pamphlet on uranium mining hazards discussing radon hazards. He said that ventilation practices were available, but argued that instead of requiring control measures, the government's actions amounted to an experiment with the miners. President Carter established an administrative task force in 1980, which debated these same issues, but Mr. Udall said it lacked the independent nature of this Committee. Mr. Udall urged the Committee when summarizing the story and making recommendations to "be bold, candid, and honest." Philip Harrison, representing the Uranium Radiation Victims Committee in Shiprock, N.M., told the panel that the private mining companies did not warn the Navajo miners from the 1940's to the 1970's. He discussed the strict eligibility requirements under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), and the Navajo uranium millers who are left out. Also, he emphasized that further studies should be done on the Navajo miners and millers, but that the studies should be independent of the federal government and overseen by the Navajo Nation. Sue Dayton of Tijares, N.M., suggested four amendments to RECA, including more accurate medical testing procedures, use of CT scans when conflicts in beta readings exist, additional epidemiological studies, and elimination of the current requirement of documentation for working-level months required by RECA. She urged the Committee to recommend establishment of a miners' medical fund, a uranium mine reclamation fund, and administrative restructuring of RECA. Tyler Mercier of Santa Fe noted that the health effects from the RaLa and other Los Alamos activities releasing radiation into the atmosphere may have resulted in a rate of thyroid cancer in northern Los Alamos County that is four times the national rate; he asked for a health study of the people who live in this area. Similarly, a delegation from the Laguna Acoma Pueblo discussed their health problems and concerns living so close to the Jackpile open pit uranium mine (5 by 7 miles wide) and on the Grants mineral belt, which supported 60 uranium mines and 7 uranium mills. Alvino Waconda, of the Acoma Pueblo, noted that the uranium millers, the open pit miners, underground miners who worked after 1971, and the residents living near the uranium mines and mills have been left out of RECA. Dorothy Purley, who worked in the mills, was ordered to take sputum tests by her employer, who then ordered her to return the results unopened. A second panel of four witnesses testified in detail regarding the practices at the uranium mills and the lack of knowledge that the millers had about radiation hazards. Chellis Glendinning of Chimayo, N.M., spoke of the psychological scars from the chronic illness and disruption of community in the Native American communities affected by uranium mining-related health problems. She related some nontraditional remedies, such as how a pueblo planned an evening of traditional storytelling as an aid in the healing process caused by fragmentation of community in native cultures. Damacio Lopez of Bernalillo, N.M., discussed the test-firing of depleted uranium warheads next to his home. B. Los Alamos Human Studies Project Representatives from the Los Alamos Human Studies Project presented testimony, including statements by two retirees from LANL. Dr. Donald Peterson discussed using his own children in one of the isotope tracer experiments at Los Alamos in the "stampede to get tracers and use them." Dr. George Voelz detailed the work of the health section divisions and the occupational medicine group with plutonium and tissue sampling for quality control. C. Atomic Veterans Ray Michael of Hot Springs, N.M., discussed his difficulty in getting compensation from the VA, having been rejected three times. He has interviewed a number of veterans about the birth defects in their children. Theodore Garcia also said he has been denied Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) compensation, despite undergoing nine operations and developing colon cancer. He believes that the justice and honor of recognition for their service has been missing for the atomic veterans. Dale Howard of Las Lunas, N.M., recounted his experience as a veteran of a Marshall Islands test of the hydrogen bomb in 1952. He noted that islanders were compensated for radiogenic diseases for which compensation is denied U.S. veterans. While he added that desperate times may have justified the atomic tests, lying to veterans and denying harms for 40 years was not justifiable. Linda Terry said that she had been unable to find documentation that relates her father's experiences at Buster/Jangle tests in 1951- 52. Her father committed suicide in 1952. She was able to get his service records, which do not record what her father experienced, only in 1994. She called for full disclosure of information about the weapons tests "so that families do not have to live in the darkness" of not-knowing. Clyde Gardner of Albuquerque described his experience as an Operation Crossroads veteran, and said that he believed he was part of an experiment because his crew was ordered on deck to decontaminate a ship. Harry Lester of Albuquerque testified that he was responsible for clean-up at Operation Castle, and that he experienced radiation sickness as a result of his exposure. After his involvement in Castle, he was shipped to an Albuquerque hospital every six months for examinations. He told the Committee that the VA has not given him his medical records; they said that his records had not been found. Mr. Lester said that he would have liked to have been informed that he was a subject of research. Joe Nardella inquired about what work the Committee was doing to investigate nasopharyngeal experiments. He believes that the Committee's definition of "experiment" should include any unproven procedure, whether or not it has been characterized as a "routine medical procedure." Barney Bailey of Lovington, N.M., described his experience as a veteran of Operation Crossroads, and his memory of one of the men falling into the contaminated water. Mr. Bailey was told by his physician at the time that he would have to be monitored for effects of radiation exposure, but he testified that he never was, in fact, monitored. Bob Stapleton, a veteran of Operation Redwing, described for the Committee some of his experiences with high levels of exposure, including one instance when he had to shower five times before he was declared "safe," and another when he was sent to retrieve contaminated rockets which had been shot through the cloud. He did not know at the time that they were contaminated. Langdon Harrison of Albuquerque told the Committee about some of his experiences as a veteran of Operations Redwing and Plumbbob. He spoke of routine carelessness in handling film badges of the pilots of cloud flythroughs, and of occasions when significantly different dose readings were recorded on film badges and personal dosimeters. He also said that records generally were unreliable, as one of his commanders had authorized a maximum permissible dose for his pilots of 50 rads during part of the operations. Glenn Stuckey of Albuquerque, a veteran of Buster-Jangle, recommended that medical care be available to all atomic veterans. He spoke of his frustration with the unresponsiveness of VA to veterans' concerns. D. Utah prison experiments Bernice Brogan of West Valley City, Utah, recounted her experiences while her ex-husband was involved in radiation experiments in Utah prisons. She said she is trying to trace autopsy records from the death of a child which she believes is related to the exposure to her then-husband. Rosalie Jones of West Jordan, Utah, was the wife of another of the subjects. Ms. Jones said that her research has shown that altogether four babies were born to the men who were the subjects of this experiment, and that three died of birth defects, including her own son. She expressed the feeling that she and her baby had been made to pay for her husband's crimes. E. Plutonium injection experiments Bill Holmes of Fulsom, California, a grandson of Albert Stevens, one of the plutonium injectees, told the panel stories about his grandfather in order to "personalize" these experiments since the subjects were identified as numbers and letters instead of as human beings. Milton Stadt of Rochester, N.Y., recounted the trauma which he believes his family experienced due to the injection of his mother with plutonium at the University of Rochester. He told the Committee that neither his mother nor his father were ever asked for their consent, and that he was not told of the experiment until 1993. F. Alaskans Mayor Ray Koonuk, Jack Schaefer, and Caroline Cannon testified about Project Chariot and its effects on the Point Hope community of approximately 700 Inuit people. They also mentioned that there were six Point Hope men involved in the I-131 study conducted by the Air Force in Alaska in 1955-56. Mr. Schaefer focused on the PHS interest in research, like Dr. Wayne Hanson's work studying caribou and Eskimos. G. Hanford Darcy Thrall of Benton County, Washington, spoke about her experience since relating her story to previous Committee meetings. She had reported an early 1960s instance of being pulled out of her elementary school class, told to drink a white liquid, and tested in a whole-body counter. She has experienced harassment since she last testified at the Spokane public comment meeting on November 21. Mr. Klaidman assured her that her information had been called to the attention of the Department of Justice. Ms. Thrall said she believes she has identified others who were subjects of the counting experiments, but that it may be difficult to persuade them to come forward in light of her experience. II. LOS ALAMOS SITE VISIT Drs. Thomas and Glatstein and staff headed by Mr. Klaidman attended a series of briefings at Los Alamos National Laboratory on Tuesday, January 31. The briefings concerned plutonium injections and other biomedical experiments; the tissue sampling program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as part of the Uranium and Transuranic registries, based in Richland, Washington; the Bayo Canyon releases in connection with RaLa tests; and Los Alamos participation in atomic weapons testing. The Committee members and staff were also briefed on the computer modeling of radiation exposure from the RaLa tests. Committee members questioned Los Alamos officials about whether a rationale had been found for the transuranic injections, which were officially described as needed for study into worker exposure effects, which involved principally inhalation exposures. Committee members and staff reviewed recent document requests with Los Alamos officials, especially the document requests related to atomic weapons testing. Members and staff expressed concern that responses to requests not be limited to a formulation of "radiation effects studies;" Los Alamos officials had defined radiation experiments as only those involving measurable biological effects of radiation exposure. Members and staff explained that the ethical implications of studies may involve lower doses than apparently envisioned by Los Alamos officials in that formulation. Los Alamos officials said that they intended to cooperate fully with Advisory Committee document searches. Miriam Bowling, Patrick Fitzgerald, and Deborah Holland remained at Los Alamos for three days, reviewing files in collaboration with Department of Energy and Los Alamos officials.