U.S. Now Links Nuclear Jobs to Illnesses

Reversing a position held for decades, the government has concluded for the first time that many workers who built America’s nuclear weapons likely became ill because of exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals, officials said Saturday.

The findings, based on a review of dozens of studies and raw medical data covering an estimated 600,000 workers at 14 nuclear weapon sites, could lead to compensation for the families of some of the workers.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was among the sites.

While the draft report did not directly link workplace exposures and specific illnesses, it found that plant workers suffered higher than normal rates of a wide range of cancers and were exposed to cancer-causing radiation and chemicals.

The studies, reviewed by a special task force, examined health records and other data covering three decades of the Cold War from the late 1940s into the 1960s.

But the draft report, which President Clinton ordered in July, reverses the government’s position that no links exist between work conducted at the Cold War-era weapon plants and later illnesses.

The report said elevated rates of 22 categories of cancer were found among workers at 14 facilities in the department’s atomic weapon complex.