And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 09:03:20 EST >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 226 >Mailing-List: list [EMAIL PROTECTED]; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [DOEWatch] Few 'atomic veterans' get VA benefits for exposure > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Source: ><A HREF="http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/fri/news/news_1n11atomvets.ht >ml >ml">http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/fri/news/news_1n11atomvets.html ></A> >========================================================= >Few 'atomic veterans' get VA benefits for exposure > >By Scott Farwell >THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE > >December 11, 1998 > >RIVERSIDE -- When Paula Wolf thinks of her husband, she sees a slender man >with piercing eyes who worked in a top-secret laboratory as Manhattan Project >scientists tinkered with the primal forces of the universe. > >She sees a spiritual man in the pulpit of their church. A tender husband. A >loving father. > >But inevitably, when Paula Wolf thinks of her husband, she remembers the night >she held him, frail from 10 years of cancer, as he slipped out of her arms and >into God's. > >George Wolf died of prostate cancer on Aug. 23, 1991, at age 72. > >Paula Wolf believes he died as the result of the radiation he received during >the four years he worked on the world's first atomic bomb. > >His Riverside Medical Center doctor, Alan Miller, agreed, and wrote a letter >explaining the relationship of George Wolf's kidney cancer in 1984 to the >cancer that led to his death seven years later. > >The Veterans Affairs Department says most "atomic veterans" were not exposed >to enough radiation to cause cancer. > >That dispute means Paula Wolf shares the plight of a group of veterans who >labored with nuclear materials or trained under radioactive clouds in the >1940s and '50s. > >Many now feel betrayed by the government, not once but twice. > >First, it exposed them to radiation decades ago in the name of the Cold War, >and now it is denying them benefits to treat the fatal diseases they say were >triggered by that service. > >For the past seven years, Paula Wolf has appealed the government's denial of >her claim for $850 a month plus money for college scholarships for her >children. > >Last month, the government told the Riverside resident it has lost her >husband's file, placing her claim in limbo. > >"I couldn't believe it at first," she said. "But then I thought about how >they've handled this whole thing, and it didn't surprise me at all." > >In fact, although 40,000 people have applied for benefits as atomic veterans, >fewer than 600 have been granted them. > >Most fail because the government believes their radiation exposure is too low >to qualify. According to the VA, no study has ever established a link between >low levels of radiation exposure and cancer. > >But a National Academy of Sciences report due next year may finally answer the >question: Are men like George Wolf casualties of the Cold War? > >For his widow, the answer is coming too late. > >"George was proud of the work he did on the bomb. He believed it saved >thousands of American lives," she said. "The way the government has acted >dishonors these veterans." > >Ordering American servicemen to stand beneath a mushroom cloud or work closely >with deadly materials seems irresponsible, now that scientists understand more >about radiation's dangers. > >But experts say the Soviet Union had the bomb at that time, and American >officials saw the country as under threat. > >"Looking back, the '50s were much more perilous than I thought at the time as >a student," said Gaddis Smith, a history professor at Yale University. "The >Strategic Air Command had plans to hit every Soviet city of any size, and >these weren't plans on paper, we were training for it." > >Brigham Young University professor Valerie Hudson said, "If you thought that >tomorrow the Russians would be landing, you'd be much less worried about >leukemia than preparing for the nuclear battlefield." > >Sent to testing zones > >In fact, military strategists saw future battlefields littered with nuclear >land mines and artillery fire. > >And they wanted troops to be ready. So they ordered them into nuclear testing >zones in the Nevada desert and a string of coral islands in the South Pacific. > >Military personnel and others saw explosions bright enough to sear their >corneas, heat capable of vaporizing human flesh, and radiation powerful enough >to cook its victims internally, mangling cells until blood drained from every >orifice. > >Yet, radiation's real deadly work would take years to show itself. > >Officially, 15 cancers qualify under government rules as caused by radiation >exposure. > >Any veteran whose cancer or illness is not on that 1988 Radiation-Exposed >Veterans Act list must prove his or her disease was caused by radiation. Of >the more than 18,000 claims filed under this provision, about 50 have been >granted. > >The reason more can't make the link, according to advocates for atomic >veterans, is a complicated "dose reconstruction" system required by the >government. It estimates how much radiation veterans encountered while on >active duty. > >Those readings, experts contend, are almost always low, because of strict >government standards. For example, if a veteran inhaled contaminated dust or >ate contaminated food, the exposure is not counted. > >Benefit of doubt > >"It's important to give the benefit of the doubt to the veterans," said Steve >Wing, chairman of the public health department at the University of North >Carolina. He testified before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last >April. > >But a spokesman for the contractor that estimates veterans' radiation danger >for the VA says its scientists actually overestimate the exposure. > >"We assume the worst-case scenario," said Cheri Abdelnour of the Nuclear Test >Personnel Review Agency. She said scientists use the highest and longest >exposure range to determine eligibility. > >No matter how much radiation an atomic veteran received, some believe it was >too much. > >"There are no safe levels of radiation," said John Gofman, the first director >of the biomedical research division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. > >Gofman, now a professor emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, >told the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1960s that low-level radiation >exposure triggers cancer. > >"The evidence is that there will always be unrepaired damage from radiation >exposure and a fraction of those will develop into fatal cancers," he said. > >Exposing troops to nuclear explosions, according to many scientists, >guaranteed that veterans would live with the legacy of cancer. > >But at the time, officials pressed for closer and closer exposure. Originally, >the Department of Defense kept men four miles from ground zero, but gradually >moved them nearer, eventually rushing the troops to the blast point moments >after a detonation. > >"Military leaders at the time viewed the A-bomb as a regular bigger bomb," >Brigham Young professor Hudson said in Utah, where nuclear fallout has been >blamed for increased rates of leukemia in children. > >Kneel on one knee > >"The government was sort of cavalier about it all," she said. "They wanted to >prevent the soldiers from being frightened by the mushroom clouds and the >double flash and so on." > >Troops at the blast site were ordered to kneel on one knee, wrap their forearm >over their eyes and wait. > >"At zero, I heard a loud click," said Thomas H. Saffer, a Marine lieutenant, >in "Countdown Zero," a book he wrote with Army Sgt. Orville E. Kelly. > >"Immediately, I felt an intense heat on the back of my neck. A brilliant flash >accompanied the heat, and I was shocked when, with my eyes tightly closed, I >could see the bones in my forearm as though I were examining a red X-ray . . . > >"The earth began to gyrate violently, and I could not control my body. I was >thrown repeatedly from side to side and bounced hopelessly off one trench wall >and then the other . . . A light many times brighter than the sun penetrated >the thick dust, and I imagined that some evil force was attempting to swallow >my body and soul." > >Though veterans' health issues such as Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome have >gotten attention, only a few politicians continue to wade in on behalf of >aging atomic veterans. > >A bill by U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., to expand the list of cancers >presumed to be connected to veterans' exposure passed a key committee this >year but did not make it to the floor. > >Wellstone calls government treatment of atomic veterans "shameful." He plans >to submit similar legislation next year, as will U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill. >========================================================== > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or >service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit >http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information. > &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment ...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ `"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
