The Nation's Newest National Park ...

[catswiththum]

Originally Posted by finnbow

At the risk of sounding a bit morbid, if half die early and half die late, they may collectively die at an average age. The whole causation thing with ionizing radiation is tough, unless we're talking massive acute doses. In fact, there's a theory, radiation hormesis, that low doses of ionizing radiation (within the region of and just above natural background levels) are beneficial, stimulating the activation of repair mechanisms that protect against disease, that are not activated in absence of ionizing radiation

Absolutely true - although many had various cancers, there is no way to make a definitive conclusion.

I have my suspicions, but they are just that - fueled by my knowledge of the sloppy site management and, to some degree I am sure, by media hyperbole.

We have some friends who did some work at Chernobyl - the initial disaster was horrendous, but the area is recovering faster than expected.

[Boreas]

It isn't really a matter of when they died as why. If, among the workers/former workers at Savannah River, you have a higher than average concentration of deaths from the sorts of cancers known to be caused by ionizing radiation, you can pretty definitively point to conditions at the plant as the cause.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Boreas

It isn't really a matter of when they died as why. If, among the workers/former workers at Savannah River, you have a higher than average concentration of deaths from the sorts of cancers known to be caused by ionizing radiation, you can pretty definitively point to conditions at the plant as the cause.

True enough, but you still can't definitively attribute causality in each individual case. Therein lies the rub when it comes to ascertaining causality for the sake of compensation for individuals. Compounding the problem is piss-poor recordkeeping at a number of the facilities over the decades (where did certain employees work, the comings-and-goings of (sub)contractors...).

[merrylander]

Some families living near the Mound site had nearly everyone in the family die of cancer. Yet there was no, nada, history of cancer in those families.

Florence said the lab opposite hers got so hot they sealed it saying it would take 100 years to cool down.

They believed that the rays emanating from the tritium in the detonators she was testing could not penetrate human skin - sure.

In the beginning workers were handling stuff unprotected until they eventually installed glove boxes,

British scientists have recently discovered that cancer cells can lie dormant in the body for years and then be triggered by some trauma. When she had that very large ovarian cyst the pathologist could not draw any conclusions of malignancy or not while she was on the table so her doctor did a radical hysterectomy. Samples of the cyst had been sent to Johns Hopkins Medical and the Armed Forces Institute for Pathology. Neither one found malignant cells but both strongly recommended further testing given the size of the cyst - like a volley ball. No further tests were done so they could well have missed some malignant cells.

[merrylander]

The truly interesting thing is that Doctors at the Dept. of Labor who handle the EEOIC fund looked at all the records that I had HCGH send and her death certificate both say unequivocally cause of death Ovarian Cancer.

Her ovaries were removed thirty-five years ago!!!

From what the Oncologist told us nowadays they can determine the source of cancer cells given some kind of fingerprinting.

[VanishingPoi]

Originally Posted by Boreas

So, what do they have against Rocky Flats?

Los Alamos might be interesting because of the history and the individuals, including Soviet spies, who worked there. Plus, because of the nature and amount of the work that actually occurred there, it's probably not as "hot" as Hanford and Oak Ridge. Plus, the area around Los Alamos is beautiful.

Los Alamos is beautiful. I used to live not too far from there. It has Bandelier.

Not far from The Pecos Wilderness, Chaco Canyon, Bland Canyon.