March 18, 2000To the United States Government
Testimony of Cheryl A. Dyer
RE: Senate Hearing on DOE Illnesses
My work history includes:
1980-1983: College student, part-time secretary at RSCC- Oak Ridge Campus
1983-1984: Secretary at Herron-Connell Insurance Agency - Oak Ridge
1984-1985: Secretary at various companies in Oak Ridge and Knoxville for a temporary placement organization
1985-1988: Secretary in Knoxville for State of Tennessee, Department ofHealth and Environment (2 years) and Department of Labor, TOSHA
(1 year)
1988-1990: Secretary at ORNL (4500N - Executive Office Building)
1990-1991: Health Physics Technologist Certification Program ? provided
by Martin Marietta and Roane State Community College ?
6 months intensive (8 hour days/five days a week)
1990-1995: Sr. Health Physics Technician at K-25
1995-1996: Sr. Health Physics Technician at Y-12
While at K-25, I worked in EVERY building and area on site. Some of the things I absolutely know I was exposed to are:
lead (handled them with bare hands while surveying, some were dropped and broken creating airborne dust),
nickel (surveyed drums of nickel compound in several vaults at K-29 and K-25 buildings where we were locked up with two fork-trucks and five laborers. Several times while I was on duty, drums were dropped and clouds of material was dispersed into the air. While surveying, we were "dressed out" in yellow coveralls, two pair of latex gloves and rubber shoe covers. When we would come out of the vaults after the shift, our noses would be black. Every time I would blow my nose for the next two days, the tissue would be black. When I questioned what was in the drums, I was told it was classified information and that I shouldn't worry about it. These drums were being prepared for shipment off-site and as soon as the trailer left the site, it was no longer classified information. I could not get a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from management, Industrial Hygiene or Industrial Safety to be posted in the vaults for the employee information. I was eventually taken to the top of a hill with my supervisor and told that the material in the drums was not dangerous and that I should stop asking questions and posing problems as the drums were needed to be off-site as quickly as possible because there was a tremendous amount of money to be made from them. I refused to go back into the vaults to survey any more. The management then had the subcontractors go in to survey. The subcontractors (for the most part) would not question what was in the drums for fear of losing their jobs,
PCBs (surveying ballasts of every type with only two pairs of latex gloves on until I threw a fit and demanded some adequate protection for us - the industrial hygiene department came in and swiped one "clean" ballast for sampling purposes (which, of course, came back as negative) but, yet, they still provided us with neoprene gloves and tyvek suits to wear for the remainder of the job as well as a staging area laid out with paper so no "possible spills" would damage the area),
vapors from wood burning (pallets were placed in rings inside the fire training facility and ignited with gasoline. I was one of the two Health Physics Techs on that job. There were also four laborers who were responsible for the burning. We placed air monitors on the employee performing the igniting and at one of the doorway entrances. The doors were kept open for control of the flames. Therefore, the fumes and smoke were blowing in all directions (wherever the wind would take it). The purpose of our air samplers was for radioactive materials. Industrial Hygiene and Industrial Safety did not perform any sampling for health or pollutant effects. During the winter, we would go into the building to "warm up by the fire". The pallets being burned were surveyed for radioactive contaminants but nothing else. These pallets were used for storage of hazardous material drums, as well as routine delivery pallets from outside vendors.),
mercury (while draining the pipes at K-1004A,B,C labs, we often found mercury behind lab counters, in the pipes, etc. At this time, no one told us that mercury was dangerous to us. We would roll the mercury around with our instrument probes in order to survey it but we did not wipe our probes off afterward (thus, any mercury remaining on the probe inevitably found its way to our skin during the course of the day.),
asbestos (we were required to survey asbestos pipes that were to be replaced. Some of these were damaged and dust would fall. Others were bagged and we were required to open them for surveying (but were told that it was not asbestos "just looks like it"),
mixed fumes from aerosol cans (thousands of aerosol cans were disposed of into 55 gallon drums throughout several years in the effort to rid the site of them. These drums were then placed in a shed (1036A) for storage. Four Health Physics Techs and six chemical operators were involved in opening the drums to survey each aerosol can inside each drum. Protective clothing included cloth coveralls, latex gloves and rubber shoe covers. Upon opening the drums, lids were not on all cans and liquid had collected from them at the bottoms of the drums where the cans had exploded due to the pressure from the atmosphere - contraction/expansion due to heat and cold. The drums were turned on their sides in order to retrieve the aerosol cans. A major portion of the drums emitted fumes upon opening which caused several of us to "fall out", invoked headaches and nausea. I was one of these people. When this happened the second time, I reported this to the supervisor in charge and the job was shut down until Industrial Hygiene could come out to sample. The results were that from the mixture of aerosol cans stored in the drums, toxic fumes were combined and therefore, Supplied Air SCBA would be worn to complete the job),
fumes from sludge drums (in sampling drums that contained sludge from various operations, the fumes from these drums upon opening were extremely noxious. Industrial Hygiene was called in and it was determined that respirators would be worn for the remainder of the job. Exactly what was in the fumes was not provided to us),
uranium hexafluoride (at Y-12, I would perform smear samples using IBM cards instead of cloth smears in the building I was assigned to. The smears were taken above my head, at floor level as well as at breathing level. I found out that the dust contained uranium hexafluoride and acetyl nitrile as these were two of the elements that were used extensively in the building. By smearing with the IBM cards, I created airborne dust that I promptly inhaled. Also, there was a denitrator on the second level which was located on a mezzanine. Whenever someone would go up there, the dust and contamination would be kicked down to the first level where other people were located and breathing.
There are so many things that go on it is hard to think of all of them at one time. I have done well to have gotten this far today, although, it has taken me three hours to compose this along with the help of my husband who also works at K-25. While I worked out there, I was the Health Physics Tech for his department in Waste Management.
I worked the night shift (8 p.m. to 8 a.m.) four nights on and three off, the day shift (7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) five days a week, the off-shift (7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.) eight days on and six days off. The night shift I worked for three months in 1991. The off-shift I worked for two years (1992-1994). The rest of the time I worked the day shift. There were lots of releases that happened during the night shift that were never reported officially. We would go clean up the area and go on with the shift. When the plant was actually operating, who knows how many planned releases were held at night.
Before I became ill from the exposures at the facilities, I enjoyed riding my bike, walking, hiking, camping, canoeing, and playing softball. When I began to get ill, it came about with such a force that I didn’t know what was happening. The last straw in changing my health and mental well-being developed at Y-12. I did not know where I was or what I was doing. I got lost going from one building to another. I got lost at home going from one room to another. I got lost going to work in the mornings. I would sit at work for hours without knowing where I was. Anytime someone would even look at me, I would begin to cry. I eventually was tested for cyanide poising which showed high levels. When my doctor had me off work for a week and tested again, it was lowered dramatically. Then, the occupational physician sent me back to work to see if it would happen again and the cyanide level rose after being back at the worksite for three days. After this time, I was forbidden by my doctors to go back to the worksite and was placed on short-term disability leave and eventually long-term disability due to chemical encephalopathy and major depression as well as acute anxiety and panic disorder.
It took a year of oral and I.V. chelation in order for my mind to function well enough for me to talk without having to stop after each word. When everything had mounted up in my body, I was no longer able to talk with fluency due to the fact I no longer knew how to form words and my thought-process was so jumbled that nothing I said made sense. I was tested for heavy metals and nickel was a major component in my toxicity. I felt I had no choice but to undergo chelation in order to remove these substances. The occupational physicians that Lockheed Martin has hired to evaluate us do not agree with the chelation method. They have determined that it would cause more harm than good for a person in my condition to undergo such treatment. However, I felt that my life was such that I had no choice if I wanted to regain any type of normal attributes and functions that I had once enjoyed. Just being able to talk was such a relief. For more than a year I felt as if I had incurred a stroke. Not being able to talk to people was one of the most frustrating experiences I had ever experienced. Unfortunately, I was only able to pay for a few I.V. treatments due to the fact I was no longer receiving disability benefits from the insurance. The treatments are rather expensive at $160 per treatment. The oral chelation is two prescriptions that insurance will pay for but the doctor who prescribes them is not compensated by the insurance. Thus, I ran up a bill with that doctor that I just paid off a few months ago.
My memory and energy level still suffers to this day. If I choose to do something outside of my home, I must rest for several days beforehand and several days afterward. If I wash clothes and run the vacuum in the same day, I am on the couch for two days after. If I go to Knoxville, I usually end up in the house for the next three days. If I go to Nashville, I must stay for four days in order to rest enough to come back home and once I reach home, I am in the house for the next week. I still have to write myself notes and place them everywhere in order to “remember” what I must do every day. There are post-it notes all over my dash in my vehicle, in the bathroom on the mirror, on my desk and on my computer, on the refrigerator and on the table. I feel so child-like having to have these notes everywhere just to remember what it is I must do for the day. However, if I didn’t have these notes, my life would be much worse as things I must do would never be accomplished and I would get lost if I went out of the house. My body pays in hurt when I attempt to go out of the house on errands or even do minor house-cleaning. I can’t hold my grand-daughter for more than a few minutes because the energy it takes isn’t there and the muscles get sore very quickly.
This is not a life that we are living. It is merely existing. I can no longer do the things (including cleaning the house) that I used to be able to do. It is very depressing to not even be able to run the vacuum cleaner without having to “pay for it” later. What has happened to me and others that have worked at the Department of Energy Nuclear Facilities should not have happened. We should have been protected as much as we were working to protect the United States. We took for granted that what we were doing at our workplace was safe for us to perform our duties. The trust we had for our government protecting us has been shattered beyond repair. For five years we have fought for someone to listen to us and help us with our medical conditions and to stop the damage to others lives that continues to this day at those facilities. This is all we have wanted! We were forced to file lawsuits against the Department of Energy as a recourse since we could not get the contractors to help us with our medical conditions. Such a shame. If it had been a private business, we would have received medical treatments but since it was the government, they have been deemed not responsible. For three years I have been unable to receive medical treatments because there has been no money to do so. What does this tell you? That we gave our lives, literally, for our government and that same government could care less. All we want is for our own government who owns the nuclear facilities where we worked to be accountable and responsible for what they have done to their workers - us! We need continuous medical treatment by doctors of our choice paid for by our government until we are deemed “cured” and can regain control of our physical being well enough to allow us to work in the world again. It hurts both physically and mentally to have to plan a day out to the store and doctor knowing that you have to rest beforehand and will be in bed for two days following the outing. It hurts physically and mentally knowing that doing the laundry will end up costing a day afterward because the muscles and joints hurt so bad from standing and bending. Please, help us. You know what is right for the people who worked so hard giving all they had to their jobs in order for the people of the United States to enjoy the freedom they have today. We worked behind the scenes and we still feel as if we are behind the scenes and nobody with the authority to help us will. You have the power to do what is right for us. Please, order the Department of Energy to compensate us for medical bills, provide funding for continued medical bills and compensate us for lost wages from the last five years and until we can return to a physical state that will allow us to work again. We deserve to be taken care of as we have literally given our lives to our government without our knowledge or consent.
Sincerely,
Cheryll A. Dyer
1120 Melton Hill Circle
Clinton TN 37716
423/457-8322