Testimony of Ann Orick
MACK & ANN ORICK
442 FOX ROAD
KNOXVILLE, TN 37922
PHONE/FAX 865-693-0331APRIL 12, 2000 SEN. FRED THOMPSON WASHINGTON, D.C.
DEAR SEN. THOMPSON:
In response to the Department of Energy's proposal today by Sec. Richardson, please know that the ill workers of the K-25 Site, Oak Ridge, feel this very inadequate and that the majority of us are left out entirely from being helped in any way.
While we are grateful for the effort being put into the nation's serious problem of nuclear facility worker illnesses, we are hurt and disturbed that such a proposal be so lack in assisting those very workers that probably suffer the most. Not being diagnosed with either beryllium disease nor a specific cancer leaves me out entirely, as it does others like Ruby Anderson, Lynn & Lynda Cox, Sally Tinker, and Donna Smith, just to name a few. As explained as carefully as possible in the hearings held just a few weeks ago, I had hoped that I had shed some light on the facts that we have a pattern of illnesses here yet unexplained, but all of us worked at the K-25 Site, and our exposures were to hundreds of heavy and /or light metals, chemicals, radiation, releases, plus toxic wastes from all over this nation, including Hanford, Rocky Flats, and even from overseas which include France, England, and Russia. We also have the nations only toxic waste incinerator, where these radioactive wastes are mixed and burned without real knowledge of what is actually being emitted from the stack.
I believe we also talked about the lack of scientific and medical evidence in cases such as ours where there are no experiments, tests, or reports of what mixed toxic waste does inside the body. We understood that you understood these unique circumstances, and said to Dr. David Michaels that if they came up with a proposal that did not help to cover us they would get it back.
NOW WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU TO DO JUST THAT AND GIVE IT BACK. It's unfair that we are being omitted from help, especially medical help. We need this proposal to get started out on a good sound foot before it gets thrown onto the floor of Congress, who probably knows little about what our needs are, and will probably vote politically for one side or the other. This will not work to help us! PLEASE, interfere now before it is too late. Please, tell DOE that the proposal is too narrow, and must be broadened to include the Oak Ridge workers that are seriously ill. We don't have another five years to wait to perhaps get in on a second phase or some other down the road maneuver for the DOE to look good.
Also, you must understand that the Oak Ridge workers do not understand how Paducah got compensated for being exposed to Plutonium. THE SAME PROCESS USED AT PADUCAH (GASEOUS DIFFUSION) PRODUCES THE SAME PRODUCTS AND BY-PRODUCTS NO MATTER WHAT TOWN OR STATE THE PROCESS OCCURS IN! Plutonium, is a by-product of fission, and therefore, Oak Ridge workers and Paducah workers are and were exposed to the same elements....uranium, plutonium, neptunium, and so forth....ask anyone who knows the physics of the process and you can verify what I am telling you. So, why is Paducah already under a compensation plan for being exposed to the same products that all of were also exposed too? Secondly, we also handled and stored plutonium from Hanford, as well as other areas. We have had a far higher potential for exposure to any of these toxic substances than ANY OTHER SITE IN THIS NATION! Therefore, WE NEED YOU to again stand up and back us in getting the help we so deserve.
Please allow us to help you, all of you in Congress, to understand this situation and what has truly happened here. It will help you to also understand the rest of the nation's problems by working through ours. We have "VOLUNTEERED" to be of service, and we want to help. Will you allow us to be your encyclopedia, your educational tool, your information center...so that you can know what we need and get it done right for us? We will sit down with anybody that will listen, wants to ask questions, wants to understand the worker and the facilities.
I am not covered in this proposal. My husband is a chronic beryllium disease victim. He would be eligible because of his FATAL LUNG DISEASE; however, as we have explained, Lockheed Martin and Metlife have already notified us that any money of any form we receive is theirs -- 100%. What is left for my husband is $0.00 --- that's "zero". So it is quite obvious that this proposal will not work for Oak Ridge workers.
Everyone at DOE is so excited, patting themselves on the back, telling the world what a wonderful thing they are doing, while we are sadly crying, watching another publicity stunt cover up the real truth. We sincerely hope that you are not going to sit by and allow this to happen. We left the hearings feeling that you cared and wanted to do the right thing. We do not need another "worker advocate". We do not need occupational physicians to do more tests. We need REAL help. These things just use up good money that could be used for us, instead of somebody else's salary. Let's stop using money for unnecessary things, and apply it to prescription medicines or medical treatments that we now do not get and cannot afford. Let's pay off some of our overdue bulls that have us turned over to collection agencies. Let's do the right thing.
PLEASE, SENATOR THOMPSON, I HAVE BELIEVED IN YOU FOR FIVE YEARS NOW. PLEASE DON'T LET DOE SELL US OUT. WE NEED AND DESERVE HELP TOO. PLEASE LET US WORK WITH YOU TO GET THIS RIGHT. I look forward to your response.
Thank you.
Sincerely
Ann Orick