U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) Hanford Home Page http://www.hanford.gov . The USDOE is the federal agency responsible for activities at the Hanford site including cleanup. These sites offer cleanup information, public involvement information and the contact people in government agencies and citizens organizations.

The USDOE - Hanford Health Studies http://www.hanford.gov/safety/healthstudies/index.html web site contians information about recent Hanford-related health studies, especially those related to worker safety and health.

Hanford Thyroid Disease Study (HTDS) http://www.fhcrc.org/science/phs/htds The Hanford Thyroid Disease Study is being conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash. The primary purpose of this epidemiological study is to investigate whether thyroid disease is increased among persons exposed to atmospheric releases of radioactive materials from the Hanford Nuclear Facility between 1944 and 1957. Here you will find questions and answers about the study, information about radiation and thyroid disease and a study draft report as of January 28, 1999.


The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), has an informative web site on Hanford at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hanford/

Battelle operates USDOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for Hanford. http://www.pnl.gov

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC provides health information, online publications, data and statistics, as well as online searches. I found some information under Radiation and then Hanford at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/brochure/profile_hanford.htm

Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Reference (CEDR) Desk http://cedr.lbl.gov/   was developed by the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide public access to health and exposure data concerning workers at DOE installations. In addition to numerous databases for searches, you will have access to a variety of journals and periodicals. Some information is on their page at http://cedr.lbl.gov/DR/drh.html

Healthfinder http://www.healthfinder.gov/  Healthfinder is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This site can lead you to online publications, clearinghouses, databases, other related Web sites, support and self-help groups, as well as government agencies and nonprofit organizations. One of their pages mentions Hanford - http://cedr.lbl.gov/

National Institutes of Health (NIH) http://www.nih.gov Comprised of 24 separate Institutes, Centers, and Divisions, the NIH is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Do a search on their site and you'll find close to 85 pages referencing Hanford including http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p303-308goldsmith/abstract.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/thyroiddiseases.html

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1994/102-10/focus1.html

The National Cancer Institute. (NCI) http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter coordinates a national research program on cnacer, including causes, prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment. In August, 1997, NCI released a report of its study on iodine-131 exposure from fallout from the nuclear bomb tests that the federal government carried out at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s and 1960s. The report includes county-by-county estimates of average iodine 131 doses to the thyroid for persons who were living or born in the U.S. at the time. NCI's site on the Internet provides the report and allows an individual to calculate his or her dose estimate from iodine-131 exposure from Nevada Test Site fallout. Radioactive Iodine 131 fallout is discussed on http://cancer.gov/i131

Human Radiation Experiments (HREX) http://hrex.dis.anl.gov This government site offers historical documents about human radiation experiments and research.  Compiles thousands of documents from federal archives and records centers, and offers a way to search the records by date, author, agency, subject matter, and full text.  The Department of Defense located these documents for review by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.  

An amazing experiment was performed in December 1949 Green Run at Hanford in which radioactive material was deliberately released into the air at Hanford . Information is at

 http://www.antenna.nl/wise/381/3733.html

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/dir/mstreet/commeet/meet8/brief8/tab_h/br8h6.txt

http://tis.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap11_1.html

http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2000/nd00/nd00thomas.html

Oregon Office of Energy (OOE) http://www.energy.state.or.us/ is the lead Oregon agency on Hanford issues. OOE works with USDOE and local governments on Hanford clean-up issues and safe transport of nuclear wastes in Oregon. OOE monitors transport issues on the Columbia River, and handles communications concerning these issues. They mention Hanford at http://www.energy.state.or.us/nucsafe/nucsafe.htm

Washington State Department of Ecology WSDE http://www.ecy.wa.gov/ at one point had a Nuclear Waste Program which oversaw Hanford operations and cleanup. It also issueed permits for the disposal of commercial, low-level nuclear waste in a state-leased site at Hanford. Do a search on their site and you get a number of pages including http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/nwp/hanford.htm

Washington Department of Health http://www.doh.wa.gov Divison of Radiation Protection regulates Hanford's radioactive air emissions. It conducts environmental radiation monitoring and verifies the results of monitoring by USDOE and its contractors. A search on their web site finds many pages including ones like http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/rp/100-d.htm

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun to access the public heath and medical implications of Iodine-131 from the Nevada Test Site and this will include thyroid dose estimates and estimates of cancer risks. See http://www.nas.edu and look under "Current Projects". The Co-Study Directors are Dr. Steven Simon and Dr. Marilyn Field. A search on their web site finds many pages including ones like http://books.nap.edu/openbook/0309068835/html/42.html

Workers sickened by beryllium at Department of Energy sites will be eligible for federal compensation under an initiative submitted July 15, 1999 to Congress. The program affects employees of DOE contractors, including those at Hanford, who are excluded from federal benefits because they worked for private companies. It is the first time the Energy Department has admitted a responsibility to take care of workers who became ill as a result of working for DOE contractors at sites that developed nuclear weapons for the Cold War. Information about the use of beryllium at Hanford and the local monitoring program is on the Internet at www.hanford.gov/safety/beryllium/ The DOE beryllium site is on the Internet at http://tis.eh.doe.gov portal/feature/occill.html

Citizens Groups Working on Radiation Health and Safety Issues

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is a national group of grassroots organizations working on issues related to nuclear weapons produciton, health, and the environment. http://www.ananuclear.org

National Association of Atomic Veterans (NAAV) http://www.naav.com assists veterans of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, Nagasaki / Hiroshima POWs, occupation and clean-up forces, and veterans who participated in other radiation-risk activites who now have cancer or other diseases believed to be radiation-related, and their families. The organization works to assure veterans and widows that such diseases are recognized as service-connected illnesses. They assist in obtaining medical attention, compensation, etc.

Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) http://www.psr.org is committed to public heath through the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, the reduction of human violence and the promotion of sustainable economic and social justice.

William Stedman, 23 Mill Road, Hyde Park NY 12538 was stationed at Hanford and is seeking information on adverse health problems people have experienced which may have resulted from radiation exposure at Hanford or the surrounding areas. His e-mail is [email protected].   He sent me the following in March 1999:  "I found this in "Discovery" magazine for April 1999.

Between 1956 and 1992 the U.S. has exploded 828 nuclear bombs beneath the Nevada desert. Among the many radioactive elements created during those test, one of the most deadly was Plutonium. Just one millionth of an ounce of Plutonium, if inhaled, greatly increases the risk of lung cancer. Many scientist assume that plutonium doesn't dissolve in water and binds strongly to rock, "it hasn't moved an inch since it was blasted into the earth".Geochemist Anne Kersting of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California found that Plutonium drifts through groundwater by clinging to tiny suspended mineral particles.Water wells samples a mile south of the site of the massive 1968 bomb test. She found traces of Plutonium in the water that exactly matched the unique chemical signature of the element deposited at the bomb site. Plutonium has been dumped directly into ground water."

New York Times article May 24, 2002 on US government experiments on sailors in 1960s http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/24/politics/24NERV.html

Multiple Chemical and Electrical and Chemical Sensetivity http://www.ctaz.com/~bhima/index.htm

Examples of Tri-City Herald News Stories that may be of interest:

Aug. 4, 2002: Lack of radiation data troubles feds
The federal government is considering how to deal with cases of nuclear workers who have cancer but don't have
good information on how much radiation they were exposed to at Hanford and other nuclear sites.
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2002/0804.html

Aug. 9, 2002: Energy Department to help sick workers
The Energy Department will help Hanford workers exposed to toxic substances get state compensation under new
regulations more friendly to workers than those proposed earlier by the Bush administration.
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2002/0809-1.html

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The Atomic Heritage Foundation is nonprofit corporation dedicated to preserving the history of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age has a web site at http://www.atomicheritage.org/

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