Seven current or former workers at Argonne National Laboratory have blood abnormalities caused by exposure to the highly toxic metal beryllium–the first such cases at the facility.
The cases were discovered during recent testing by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of a nationwide screening program of potential beryllium victims. The workers have been referred to medical specialists to determine whether they have beryllium disease, an incurable lung illness that has claimed the lives of scores of workers in the nuclear industry.
“We regret that their exposure has caused them physical harm,” said Brian Quirke, spokesman for the Energy Department, which owns Argonne. The laboratory, near Lemont, conducts research in fields that include high-energy physics, chemistry and materials science.
The news comes at a time when U.S. officials are in the Chicago area to help ailing weapons workers and others associated with Energy Department facilities apply for a new federal compensation program. People with beryllium disease qualify.
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Beryllium is a strong, lightweight metal that has been used for decades in nuclear weapons and research experiments. Microscopic amounts of beryllium dust–the toxic form of the metal–can cause disease, and workers who inhale the dust have a lifelong risk of developing the illness.
People who have the blood abnormalities do not necessarily have the disease; but it means that the body’s immune system has reacted to beryllium exposure. Further tests, such as a lung biopsy, are needed to confirm the illness. Experts estimate about half of the people with blood abnormalities will develop the disease.
In a statement, Argonne said the facility “puts worker and public health and safety first in all its research and has done so for more than 50 years.”
Argonne has used beryllium, which has rare nuclear properties, since the 1940s. The metal is used at the lab in X-ray machine windows and in neutron beam experiments to study the property of materials.
Safeguards in place
Officials said many safeguards have been used for decades, including extensive ventilation.
Former Argonne safety director Don O’Neil said he was surprised and saddened by the results.
“I thought our controls were exemplary from the 1950s on,” said O’Neil, who retired in 1989.
Argonne reports that about 1,775 current and former workers have had potential exposure to beryllium dust over the years.
But no one currently works with the metal in a way that could create dust, Argonne spokeswoman Donna Jones Pelkie said. The facility once had a beryllium machine shop, but it closed around 1980, she said.
In recent years, the Energy Department has been testing the blood of current and former beryllium workers at nuclear facilities nationwide. As of December, 27,835 workers have been screened, with 183, or less than 1 percent, showing beryllium disease. Another 546 have blood abnormalities.
Ninety-seven former workers at Argonne and Site B, a former laboratory at the University of Chicago, have been screened, with six former Argonne workers showing blood abnormalities. Officials have been unable to track down hundreds more who might have been exposed at those facilities.
Forty-eight current Argonne workers have been tested in ongoing screening, with one showing the blood abnormality.
Officials disclosed few details about the people affected at Argonne, saying only that they fell into the job categories of welder, scientist, truck driver, technician and clerical worker.
Three of the seven worked at Site B, the secret World War II lab that used beryllium to construct the world’s first atomic bomb. The U. of C.’s wartime research labs evolved into Argonne, which opened in 1946. In the 1940s the dangers of beryllium were not fully understood, and Site B had few precautions.
“It was a very dusty place,” said Larry Kelman, 82, of Naperville who developed the disease after working at Site B. “Every morning the secretaries had to clean off the dust before starting work.”
At least 10 workers developed beryllium disease after working at Site B. The facility was torn down more than 25 years ago.
For decades, the U.S. government denied fault when workers became ill in the course of building nuclear weapons. But in 1999, the Energy Department said it would compensate workers who became sick from exposure to beryllium, radiation and silica.
417 Illinois claims filed
In Illinois, 417 people have filed claims on behalf of themselves or deceased relatives, U.S. Labor Department spokesman Larry Hoss said. Of the 18,000 claims filed nationwide, the government has paid $91 million to 1,272 people, he said.
This week, Labor Department officials are in Joliet and Willowbrook helping claimants fill out forms. On Monday in Joliet, Virginia Susner of Crest Hill checked on her claim. She said her husband, Richard, had been healthy before working as an electrician at Blockson Chemical in the 1950s. The Joliet firm produced uranium for the defense program, officials said.
But after a few years of crawling around in the plant’s insulation and wiring areas, his bones started to ache. His doctor told him the yellow powder that dusted his clothes every day was probably causing his ailments, she said. He died in 1980 at age 53. Cancer started in his lungs and spread throughout his organs, she said.
Harry Burkhart and his sister, Linda Reavis, both of Joliet, said the government did not fully inform workers of the risks at facilities such as Blockson, where their father was a maintenance man from 1959 to 1985.
Harold Burkhart died in 1996, two months after a rare form of lung cancer was diagnosed, his son said.
“Nothing’s going to bring him back,” Harry Burkhart said. “I guess the money would give us the satisfaction that [the government] admitted that something was wrong.”
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Beryllium disease
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Beryllium is an extremely lightweight metal that is six times as stiff as steel. It is not hazardous in solid form, but its dust can cause an often-fatal lung illness if it is inhaled.
SYMPTOMS
It can take up to 40 years after exposure to develop beryllium disease symptoms, which can include:
– Cough
– Fatigue
– Shortness of breath
– Night chills
– Weight loss
EVALUATION, TREATMENT
Blood tests and chest X-rays are used to help conM-^rm a diagnosis. The disease can be treated with steroids, but there is no cure.
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