KING 5.com
Sick Hanford workers speak out for first time
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by SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News
Posted on April 8, 2014 at 10:49 PM
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Exposure to potentially harmful chemical vapors sent 26 workers at the Hanford Site to a Richland hospital or an on-site medical clinic in the two-week period starting March 19.
For the first time, two of those workers talk on camera with KING 5 about their experience -- and the symptoms and problems they continue to exhibit nearly two weeks after breathing in vapors that vented from underground tanks and pipes that hold vast amounts of toxic chemicals and radioactive isotopes.
On March 19 health physics technician Steve Ellingson and a partner were near the AY and AZ tank farms at Hanford when they noticed a chemical smell.
"It got really bad. We could smell it, we could taste it. It has a coppery taste," Ellingson said. "We both started to have problems with our chest and our throats."
They exited the area after the smell seemed to get worse. Afterward, he said he couldn't get the taste of out his mouth, and he began to experience nausea.
Over the next few days, Ellingson said he was evaluated at the on-site medical clinic, at a local emergency room and by his own doctor. None could find the cause for his symptoms, which he said worsened after the first day, with lung irritation, violent coughing and fatigue continuing to this day.
"It's like I can't get a good deep breath. It's like a shallow breath all of the time," he told KING 5 two weeks after the exposure.
Becky Holland, also a health physics technician at Hanford, breathed chemical vapors a week later while working with a team at the T tank farm. The group was preparing to shoot video of the inside of one of the waste storage tanks.
After a riser cover was removed, Holland said the group began to smell fumes. The group moved upwind to escape the smell, but the fumes only seemed to get worse -- even workers wearing respirators reported they could smell it. An emergency evacuation order was issued.
Holland said he began to feel bad immediately. "I started feeling kind of numb, my face, and instant headache," Holland said. "And then I started shaking really bad and sweating. It scared me."
A 28-year veteran of the Hanford Site, Holland said, "I've smelled things before. I've been exposed to things before, but never been exposed to something or been affected the way that I was [on March 26]."
Holland was rushed to Kadlec Medical Center in Richland. "I was scared. I was shaking. I was profusely sweating and [had] a horrible headache," she said.
She was evaluated and released the same day. The headache continued, she said, and the next day she began to experience nosebleeds so severe and persistent that she later had the inside of her nose cauterized.
"I've never experienced anything this bad," Holland said.
"I've walked through this stuff a hundred times," said Ellingson, a 22-year Hanford veteran. "I've tasted it. I've smelled it and it's never bothered me. But now for two weeks I've had trouble and I don't like it."
Cleared for work
The 586-square-mile Hanford Site is home to 177 tanks holding the waste generated by more than four decades of plutonium production -- a messy process that involves using caustic chemicals to dissolve nuclear reactor fuel rods to extract small amounts of plutonium. Twenty-five years after plutonium production ceased at the site, 56 million gallons of highly radioactive chemical waste remains to be treated for long-term storage. The tanks hold chemicals such as ammonia, butanol, formaldehyde and mercury. Much of the waste actively emits gas, which is vented through filters designed to remove radioactive particles. Chemicals, however, often pass through.
All 26 workers who reported being exposed to chemical vapors starting on March 19 were quickly cleared to return to work by the on-site clinic.
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KING 5.com
Hanford worker exposed again to airborne irritant
Credit: KING 5 News
The HPMC Hanford Occupational Health Service clinic in Hanford's 200-West Area.
by SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News
Posted on April 9, 2014 at 6:41 PM
A Hanford worker who was sickened by exposure to chemical vapors on March 19 was exposed to another unknown substance Wednesday, prompting a trip to Hanford’s on-site medical clinic.
Sources told KING 5 that the worker, who missed approximately 10 days of work after March 19 and is under a physician's order to avoid lung irritants on the job, had trouble breathing after working in an area that was not free of aggravating substances.
The sources said the worker was taken to HPMC, the on-site medical clinic at Hanford, where he was evaluated, released and declared fit to return to work on Thursday, despite his continued breathing problems. The medical professionals told the worker that he is to stay indoors Thursday and work at a desk, the sources said.
Twenty-six workers have been transported to the hospital or HPMC after detecting chemical vapors in different Hanford waste tank farms. The Department of Energy and its contractors at the site have insisted that worker safety is a top priority and that the affected workers were evaluated by independent health experts before being returned to duty.
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