Hanford Downwinders Can Sue Contractors Ruling Allows Residents Exposed To Radiation To Sue For The Costs Of Monitoring Their Health

Inland Northwest residents exposed to Hanford’s secret radiation clouds during the Cold War can sue private contractors for the costs of monitoring their health, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reinstated a lawsuit that a Yakima federal judge tossed out of court in 1993.

U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald dismissed the Hanford case, saying medical checkups for downwinders are premature until the federal government finishes a Hanford Superfund cleanup and health risk assessment.

The California appeals court overruled McDonald, opening the door for additional lawsuits.

An Oregon attorney representing residents who filed the suit will now seek court approval to represent people over a wide area of Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Idaho.

“Medical monitoring is a potential lifesaver for people whose illnesses haven’t been detected yet,” said attorney Roy Haber.

McDonald must still rule further on medical monitoring, said Tom Foulds of Seattle, a downwinders’ attorney.

The judge could agree to certify a legal class of downwinders entitled to health monitoring. If so, that would open the case to people not already suing Hanford.

“There is much evidence and many arguments still ahead, but this escalates the opportunity for us,” Foulds said.

Medical monitoring is important, but plaintiffs also should be individually compensated, said Spokane attorney Nancy Oreskovich, who represents 1,600 Hanford downwinders in a separate lawsuit against Hanford’s contractors.

Hanford made plutonium for nuclear bombs for four decades. From 1945 through the mid-1960s, its weapons factories ejected iodine 131 and other radioactive substances into the air and into the Columbia River.

The private contractors who ran Hanford during the heaviest period of radiation emissions include DuPont De Nemours, General Electric Co. and Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co.

In 1989, the federal government and Washington state launched a 30-year, $50 billion plan to clean up Hanford’s polluted soils and dangerous tanks.

In 1990, after government officials admitted the Hanford releases may have caused health problems, several thousand people filed suits for illnesses they attribute to radiation exposure.

But Judge McDonald refused to allow claims for the costs of future medical monitoring in those suits, or in a new suit filed by three downwinders in 1993.

McDonald said such action was premature under the federal Superfund law. He noted the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry hadn’t yet conducted a health risk assessment at Hanford.

The agency asked McDonald to dismiss the suits.

The California appeals court said the lack of a health study shouldn’t bar people from suing the private contractors.

Because health monitoring costs aren’t provided in any government program, they can be sought in a lawsuit against the contractors without endangering or interfering with the cleanup, the court said.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Karen Dorn Steele Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.