Former Rockwell Lab Workers to Be Studied : Environment: The effort is a response to community concerns over radioactive and chemical contamination.

The U.S. Department of Energy has given final approval for a long-awaited health study of workers at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, once the site of extensive nuclear testing.

The study by the UCLA School of Medicine will begin in September and is expected to take 18 months to complete, said Larry Bilick, a spokesman with the California Department of Health Services.

Bilick made the announcement at a meeting Wednesday night in Simi Valley attended by members of an independent advisory committee that recommended nearly a year ago that the UCLA epidemiological team conduct the study. The committee consists mainly of community representatives and scientists.

Because of management changes at the Department of Energy, which sponsored the former nuclear operations at the lab and is responsible for funding the health study, it has taken longer than expected to get the green light to begin, Bilick said.

The $500,000 health study, which will involve interviewing and studying the health records of past and current workers at the lab, was called for by local legislators responding to community concerns about low levels of radioactive and chemical contamination at the Santa Susana lab northwest of Chatsworth.

The purpose of the study is to determine if Rockwell workers experienced any unusual patterns of illness and possibly even death from exposure to toxic and radioactive materials at the test complex. Local activists have long pressed for such a study because of concerns about the effects on the community at large.

Rockwell, which conducted more than 30 years of nuclear testing and research on behalf of the federal government, ceased all such operations in the late 1980s and is now engaged in a $44-million cleanup of mostly low-level chemical and radioactive contamination at the Santa Susana lab.

Also Wednesday night, Jim Ross, an official with the Regional Water Quality Board, said that his agency recently conducted its own surface water study in Bell Canyon south of the lab site and found no significant levels of contamination.

Residents in the area requested the study because of fears that runoff from the lab may have contaminated creek water near their homes. Their fears were heightened last year when test results for the first time revealed low levels of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, had seeped into ground water about 100 feet northwest of the lab site.

Environmental officials said that the levels are far below the state’s drinking water limits and pose no health risk to the public. The ground water in the area is not used for drinking.

State and federal agencies working with Rockwell are continuing to conduct off-site ground water and soil tests to determine the extent of the contamination.