CHATSWORTH : Panel Questions Lab Team Expertise

An advisory panel has questioned the expertise of a UCLA team chosen to study whether workers at the Rocketdyne center near Chatsworth suffered health problems because of exposure to radiation and hazardous chemicals.

In a letter faxed Thursday to state health officials, six of the Rocketdyne health study advisory panel’s 11 voting members called for a meeting between the committee and the UCLA team selected to do the $500,000, 18-month study.

Daniel Hirsch, a community activist who is co-chairman of the panel, said some members believe the UCLA scientists are well versed in the health hazards of toxic chemicals but not radiation.

Hirsch said he and other panel members want to be sure that radiation consultants will have more than a “peripheral role” in the study. He and other panel members have asked state officials not to sign the contract with UCLA until the matter is resolved.

“We’re not in any way questioning the qualifications or integrity of the UCLA researchers,” Hirsch said. “We think they can do an admirable job related to the chemical exposure. Our concern is to assure that the radiation issue also is adequately addressed.”

Since it opened in 1947, about 49,000 people have worked at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, operated by Rockwell International’s Rocketdyne division in the hills northwest of Chatsworth. Among these, about 6,000 wore badges to monitor their exposure to radiation while the laboratory was engaged in nuclear research.

Larry Bilick, a community relations specialist with the state Department of Health Services, said he received the letter Thursday but did not know whether a special meeting would be called regarding the committee’s concerns.