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During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

During the Vietnam War, the hell that was soldiers' daily lives sometimes was complicated by their exposure to plastic explosives and their neurotoxic effects. Back home, munitions workers faced similar nightmares. Though not wandering the jungle in search of Viet Cong, workers on the front lines at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant knew that at any moment they could be injured or die in an explosion. And those who were lucky or smart enough to survive could have ended up like Mary Ludlow. Ludlow, a Wisconsin resident, worked two stints at the plant in the late-1960s, totaling about six months. Ludlow left the plant a second time, and for good, when her then-husband decided to pursue a graduate degree at Iowa State University in Ames.

Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her that none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer. Now, on the eighth anniversary of the federal program created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says that McCabe, now 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected.

Two men are alive today out of a group of eight to tell of their horrific experience when they were used as cushions between the Atomic Bomb and the walls of its enclosed container during its unloading on Christmas Island in 1957. Placed between a space of a little over six inches from wall to wall, the two field engineers and their colleagues could clearly see the bomb which was visible from its badly done crate that had gaps around its sides.

Former Pantex employees who developed cancer can state their case to a Federal Health Board. The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health is in Amarillo Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss topics related to energy employees occupational illness. Although not officlally discussing Pantex, the Board will hear from the public from 7pm to 8pm Tuesday and 4pm to 5pm Wednesday at the Holiday Inn, 1911 E. I-40. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has previously recommended that there is sufficient evidence at Pantex for a "dose reconstruction". It's a method to estimate how much radiation an energy employee was exposed to while working there.

Leonard W. Duke survived being dragged by a truck when he was 7. Doctors said he wouldn't make it. As he grew older, three doctors subsequently told him he wouldn't live to be 30, another 10 years and to be 50. At 81, he's healthier than many of his fellow former Line 1 workers. Since doctors long have predicted his demise, Duke is not keen on visits to the doctor's office, even after he's suffered some recent dizziness. He does, however, trust Laurence Fuortes and his staff at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health's Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program. During a luncheon Thursday that honored former Iowa Army Ammunition workers who worked on Line 1 where secret atomic weapons were assembled between 1947 and 1975, people like Duke visited with fellow plant workers and the University of Iowa staff.

Leonard W. Duke survived being dragged by a truck when he was 7. Doctors said he wouldn't make it. As he grew older, three doctors subsequently told him he wouldn't live to be 30, another 10 years and to be 50. At 81, he's healthier than many of his fellow former Line 1 workers. Since doctors long have predicted his demise, Duke is not keen on visits to the doctor's office, even after he's suffered some recent dizziness. He does, however, trust Laurence Fuortes and his staff at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health's Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program. During a luncheon Thursday that honored former Iowa Army Ammunition workers who worked on Line 1 where secret atomic weapons were assembled between 1947 and 1975, people like Duke visited with fellow plant workers and the University of Iowa staff.

Leonard W. Duke survived being dragged by a truck when he was 7. Doctors said he wouldn't make it. As he grew older, three doctors subsequently told him he wouldn't live to be 30, another 10 years and to be 50. At 81, he's healthier than many of his fellow former Line 1 workers. Since doctors long have predicted his demise, Duke is not keen on visits to the doctor's office, even after he's suffered some recent dizziness. He does, however, trust Laurence Fuortes and his staff at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health's Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant-Former Worker Program. During a luncheon Thursday that honored former Iowa Army Ammunition workers who worked on Line 1 where secret atomic weapons were assembled between 1947 and 1975, people like Duke visited with fellow plant workers and the University of Iowa staff.

Advocates for sick nuclear workers are calling on Congress to create a National Day of Remembrance to recognize those workers who died or became ill while producing weapons for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. A nationwide petition drive will be launched in Oak Ridge Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Atomic Trades and Labor Council office, 109 Viking Road. The Oak Ridge event is sponsored by the non-profit group, Cold War Patriots, and will feature a 40-foot petition scroll and display of the proposed act. The petition will be available at Professional Case Management in Jackson Plaza through May 1, when it will be transported to other Cold War nuclear sites to gather more signatures.

For the first time in the protracted Hanford downwinders lawsuit, the lead lawyer for government contractors said Tuesday his companies are ready to offer cash settlements to a few of the thousands of people who believe their illnesses were caused by radiation releases. U.S. District Judge William F. Nielsen hosted more than a dozen attorneys in Spokane for a status conference on the 18-year-old downwinders lawsuit, which has cost taxpayers more than $57 million to defend.

SPOKANE A federal judge has indicated he's not willing to continue trying 2,000 claims in individual trials and admonished attorneys as an 18-year-old lawsuit over radioactive emissions from Hanford prepares to resume. About 2,000 downwinders have pending claims that their health was damaged, primarily as radioactive isotopes were released into the air and blown downwind at Hanford during World War II and the early years of the Cold War. In the six years that Judge William Fremming Nielsen has had the case in Eastern Washington Federal District Court, he had hoped that by taking a few claims to trial attorneys could better evaluate claims and reach settlement agreements. Just 10 claims have been settled in that bellwether process, with some jury decisions since reversed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The resolution of 10 claims in 18 years through the litigation process requires the court to conclude that the process is proceeding at a pace that is not expeditious and is far too slow to bring the litigation to resolution," Nielsen wrote in a court order.

Federal agents posing as workers have completed an undercover investigation of the Department of Labor (DOL) that has resulted in claims that the department frequently mishandles serious worker complaints, placing many workers at risk. The outcome of the investigation is detailed in a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found DOL mishandled nine out of the 10 cases included in the undercover operation. The report, which is scheduled to be released on March 25, found that the agency's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) not only failed to properly investigate wage and hour complaints, but also ignored a complaint that underage children were working at a California meatpacking plant during school hours, a violation of a number of labor laws.

"Some residents of the Apollo area say in a new lawsuit that they developed cancer from exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals at the former Babcock & Wilcox plant, Team 4's Paul Van Osdol reported Wednesday. It's closed now, but the property in Parks Township, Armstrong County, was once the site of the largest private nuclear processing facility in the country. Neighbors and former workers there say all the radiation left them poisoned. A new lawsuit says that "repeated releases of hazardous and radioactive substances into the area" around the plant caused three area residents to develop cancer. One of those people -- Eva Myers -- lived 400 feet from the plant. She died of lung cancer two years ago."

"Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, must pay $1.2 million to 16 Louisiana workers who claimed they were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation when they were cleaning used oil drilling pipes, a jury said. A state court jury in Gretna, Louisiana, yesterday awarded the men amounts ranging from $10,000 to $175,000 each, finding that they face an increased risk of cancer as a result of their exposure to naturally occurring radioactive material in the used pipes between 1977 and 1992. "It was not what I was hoping for," said one of the men, David Perry, who was awarded $10,000."

"Nearly 40 years ago, Hermogenes Marrero was a teenage U.S. Marine, stationed as a security guard on the tiny American island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico. Marrero says he's been sick ever since. At age 57, the former Marine sergeant is nearly blind, needs an oxygen tank, has Lou Gehrig's disease and crippling back problems, and sometimes needs a wheelchair. "I'd go out to the firing range, and sometimes I'd start bleeding automatically from my nose," he said in an interview to air on Monday night's "Campbell Brown." "

"Vieques is a small island with a big problem. And the Obama administration is fighting to keep it that way. A municipality of Puerto Rico just a few miles east of the main island, Vieques has the lamentable distinction of being the venue of six decades of training exercises and weapons testing by the U.S. Navy. Starting around the outbreak of World War II, our military has tested all manner of munitions there, from napalm to depleted uranium to Agent Orange. It has also released immense quantities of jet fuel, flame retardants, and other toxic substances. The place is contaminated. Not surprisingly, Vieques's 9000 residents - American citizens by birth - are a sickly bunch. Cancer rates are 30 percent higher than they are on Puerto Rico's main island. In the case of diabetes, the figure is 41 percent; for hypertension, nearly 400 percent. And roughly 80 percent of residents test positive for heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic in their hair."

"ONE of Australia's most respected military figures has joined veterans' groups in calling for war benefits to be paid to Australian servicemen who were exposed to British atom bomb tests in the 1950s. The retired major-general, Alan Stretton, who led the reconstruction of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy and commanded Australia's troops in Vietnam, said a declaration stating the tests constituted "non-warlike, hazardous" operations would give former servicemen and their widows access to the same entitlements as other war veterans."

Lawyers have charged £16million in the battle to get justice for Britain's nuclear test veterans. The money has been spent by legal teams for the UK Ministry of Defence and the veterans during a fiercely contested High Court action. It means the final bill could be much higher than any com-pensation eventually received. The revelation comes after a judge told both sides, who are meant to have been negotiating a settlement for the past six months, to start talks. Some 22,000 men, who were sent to Australia and the South Pacific to witness atomic bomb tests, allegedly suffered a range of health problems. Many of the 3,000 survivors have joined together in a major legal case to sue the MoD for negligence. But the case has descended into farce, with the MoD claiming a confidential offer has been made, but vets' lawyers saying they haven't received one. The High Court was told on Friday that costs are already at £15m for the three-year case, with a further £1m expected to pay for an appeal brought by the MoD which will be heard in May.

Lawyers have charged £16million in the battle to get justice for Britain's nuclear test veterans. The money has been spent by legal teams for the UK Ministry of Defence and the veterans during a fiercely contested High Court action. It means the final bill could be much higher than any com-pensation eventually received. The revelation comes after a judge told both sides, who are meant to have been negotiating a settlement for the past six months, to start talks. Some 22,000 men, who were sent to Australia and the South Pacific to witness atomic bomb tests, allegedly suffered a range of health problems. Many of the 3,000 survivors have joined together in a major legal case to sue the MoD for negligence. But the case has descended into farce, with the MoD claiming a confidential offer has been made, but vets' lawyers saying they haven't received one. The High Court was told on Friday that costs are already at £15m for the three-year case, with a further £1m expected to pay for an appeal brought by the MoD which will be heard in May.

A judge has given a green light to a class action suit filed by a group of Long Island homeowners worried about toxic leaks seeping into their property from the nearby Brookhaven Laboratory in Upton. Suffolk County homeowners say past leaks of chemicals from the renowned lab have reduced their property values and endangered their health.

A judge has given a green light to a class action suit filed by a group of Long Island homeowners worried about toxic leaks seeping into their property from the nearby Brookhaven Laboratory in Upton. Suffolk County homeowners say past leaks of chemicals from the renowned lab have reduced their property values and endangered their health.

"THE Rudd Government has refused to help Australian veterans who are suing the British Government over radiation exposure during atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and 60s. A group of survivors and their families are joining a class action after 800 British nuclear veterans were granted permission to sue their own Ministry of Defence."

"More Hanford downwinders could be going to trial to have their claims heard in a 19-year-old case. Almost 2,000 plaintiffs have pending claims, many of them asserting that past emissions of radioactive material from the Hanford nuclear reservation were carried downwind and caused cancer or other thyroid disease. Some people also believe they developed other cancers from eating contaminated fish. On Wednesday, Judge William Fremming Nielsen of Eastern Washington District Federal Court in Spokane said that he would select 30 of the claims for hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroids, to proceed to trial as soon as October. In addition, about 32 claims filed for thyroid cancer will be considered for settlement with the help of a mediator."

"War » But sickened warriors searching for help will have to wait for science and government bureaucracy to link their conditions to their service. Emily Rainwater, a Defense Contract Management Agency employee, served two tours of duty in Iraq.... * « * 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * » Related * Sickened by Service * Jan 15: * Officials just now recognizing Agent Orange exposures * Government waits for proof - sometimes for decades - before caring for sick veterans * Vets say toxic tests sickened them; government says prove it Editor's note: Second in a three-part series Combat had changed him. Yet Andrew Rounds was still the adoring son his mother had sent off to war. He was still the hard worker who had helped her deliver newspapers after school. He was still the amiable soul who knew the names of everyone in the tiny village of Waterloo, Ore., from the mayor to the man who lived under the narrow bridge that crosses the river on the east side of town. "

"A Rhode Island law firm that won major settlements against the tobacco industry filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of three Kiski Valley residents who allege wrongful death, personal injury and damages from the operations of two former nuclear fuels plants in Apollo and Parks. Although the lawsuit, filed by the Providence-based law firm Motley Rice, does not disclose a dollar figure sought in damages, the court document states that "... incidents to health, property and the environment are extremely dire and can be measured in the millions, if not billions of dollars." The defendants, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group and the Atlantic Richfield, operated a uranium fuel processing plant in Apollo and a plutonium plant in Parks from 1957-86."