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United States II: Energy Expands Beryllium Testing on Weapons Workers The U.S. Energy Department plans to expand testing at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois to include facility subcontractors who might have been exposed to beryllium, a toxic metal, the Chicago Tribune reported today (see GSN, Feb. 25). Energy will offer blood testing for subcontract workers who have worked at the facility within the last 50 years. The tests will be voluntary and the department will cover all costs. Recent blood testing conducted on full-time Argonne employees indicated seven current or former workers had developed blood abnormalities linked to beryllium disease. “Argonne and the Energy Department never intended to cause harm to people who came to work here,” department spokesman Brian Quirke said. “Argonne tried to keep exposure to a minimum, but we know that in some cases we did cause injury.” The laboratory has several safeguards, such as extensive ventilation systems, to protect workers from beryllium dust, Argonne officials said. Experts train and warn subcontract employees about hazards at the facility, they said. Laboratory workers do not now use beryllium in a way that would create dust, facility officials said. There once was a beryllium machine shop, but it closed in 1980. “That machine shop was operated under the strictest possible guidelines,” Argonne spokeswoman Catherine Foster said. Widespread Abnormalities In the last several years, Energy has conducted blood tests on current and former beryllium workers at U.S. nuclear weapons research facilities. Of more than 27,000 workers tested, 729 have contracted beryllium disease or have shown blood abnormalities related to the metal, according to the Tribune. At the Argonne facility, 150 current and former employees have been tested, with blood abnormalities found in six former workers and one current employee. At a former Energy nuclear weapons plant in Rocky Flats, Colorado, four subcontractors have been found with beryllium disease, according to the Tribune. Several more were found with blood abnormalities (Sam Roe, Chicago Tribune, March 28). Compensation in Iowa This week, Jeff Mills became the first former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant worker to receive compensation from the Labor Department for contracting beryllium disease. Mills, a former nuclear weapons inspections foreman at the Iowa plant, received a $150,000 check, according to the Associated Press. Labor will also pay his continuing medical costs related to the disease. Congress last year authorized payments to former federal workers who contracted health problems from exposure to beryllium and other toxic materials involved in producing nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Mills said it was important for all former plant employees to enroll in the program. “I know there’s a lot of people, good friends that worked with me … that haven’t bothered to figure out the paperwork and go through with this process,” Mills said. “I’m surprised by this. I really thought I’d be long gone before I saw this payment and the medical coverage.” Mills said he knew his work at the Iowa nuclear weapons plant involved coming into contact with beryllium, but he does not have any resentment toward the government. “No, I’m not angry. Nobody forced us to work there,” Mills said. “We all kind of thought we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. We had to build up bigger and better weapons than what the Russians were doing. Nobody was really aware of [all the] dangers at the time” (Todd Dvorak, Associated Press, March 27).
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