Mound workers from '60s, '70s may get money, medical benefits


Government scientists on Wednesday, May 19, proposed changes that would make it easier for people who worked in certain buildings at the Miamisburg Mound Plant in the 1960s and '70s to qualify for federal compensation and medical benefits if they develop cancers that can be caused by radiation exposure.

The scientists' recommendation to an advisory board came after researchers realized that some Mound workers may have been exposed to three isotopes of radon that leaked into an office area undiscovered for 20 years. They worked in a building that was erected over "the old cave," a facility so badly contaminated by materials including plutonium that officials encased it in concrete.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, recommended that people who worked at Mound Buildings R and SW from March 1, 1959, through March 5, 1980, be granted special status that assumes their illnesses are caused by occupational exposures.

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, which makes recommendations to the White House concerning the Labor Department's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, is expected to act on the recommendation by the Friday close of a three-day hearing in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

NIOSH scientist Brant Ulsh said his agency's research found that a worker in an office known as SW-19 underwent testing for radiation in early 1979 and had a high whole body count consistent with plutonium exposure. That July, officials found high radon counts near a small hole in a wall and cracks along baseboards. Ulsh called it "technically enhanced radon layered on top of naturally occurring radon."

Because the leak went unmonitored for 20 years, it's impossible to reconstruct anyone's potential exposure, he said.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after cigarette smoking, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Ulsh said most of the radon has a very short half life and is quickly disbursed in a room. There is no evidence that the entire R-SW complex was contaminated, Ulsh said, but the Labor Department said it couldn't administer a program for a single office, so both buildings were included.

Mound officials remediated the radon problem in 1980 and checked radon levels several times thereafter, he said. At some point after 1980, workers were moved out of the area.

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