Hanford downwinders lawsuit expands

Over the objections of lawyers for Hanford contractors, 208 new plaintiffs alleging they were made sick by clouds of radiation from Hanford starting in the 1940s have joined the Hanford toxic tort case.

Most are being represented by the Spokane law firm of Eymann, Allison, Fennessy, Hunter & Jones. The new plaintiffs added to the 14-year-old case in the last month bring the number of people suing Hanford’s World War II and Cold War-era contractors to more than 2,000.

They have developed thyroid cancer or hypothyroidism and claim they were exposed to emissions of radioactive iodine-131 from Hanford during the course of making plutonium for nuclear bombs, attorney Dick Eymann said at a status conference Tuesday in U.S. District Judge William F. Nielsen’s court.

The lead attorney for the defendant Hanford contractors, which include DuPont de Nemours Inc. and General Electric Co., objected to the expanded case.

Adding new plaintiffs at this stage of the litigation is “a red flag” because little is known about them and the range of radiation doses they may have received, said attorney Kevin Van Wart of Chicago.

Roy Haber of Eugene, an attorney for the plaintiffs, disagreed.

“People have a right to file these cases, and we as lawyers have a duty (to represent them.) We believe these are credible cases,” Haber said.

A trial for 11 “bellwether” cases thought to be representative of the rest of the plaintiffs has been tentatively scheduled for April 18.

That is slightly later than the March trial date originally suggested when Nielsen took over the long-running case last year, but the lawyers haven’t lost much ground, said Louise Roselle of Cincinnati, lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

“This is the first firm trial date we’ve had. We’re on track,” Roselle said. But Van Wart said it was a “very ambitious schedule” and it might be difficult to start the trial by April.

Impatient plaintiffs watching the proceedings said they’ve waited 14 years for a trial and don’t want any more delays. Spokane resident David Martin was one of them.

Martin, 66, is represented by Eymann’s firm. He said he lived in a trailer as a kid with his family as his father built roads at Hanford. He lived there in the 1940s and ‘50s, the years of the heaviest Hanford radiation emissions, and drank goat’s milk – the most potent source of radioactive iodine.

According to a recent National Cancer Institute study of iodine-131 in fallout from atomic bomb tests, kids who drank contaminated goat’s milk were at the most risk of developing thyroid disease.

Martin said he’s had two cancerous tumors removed from his thyroid and has also survived salivary gland cancer. But cancer has now spread to his liver, kidneys and backbone. He said he takes 15 pills a day and has to use an oxygen machine to get through the night.

“I want this trial over. These illnesses have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink. My doctor told me it was the (contaminated) milk that got me,” Martin said. “So many people have died, and the government has lied.”

It’s likely that after the bellwether trials are concluded next year, the case will go up to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for further rulings, Nielsen said.

In recent months, he’s made key rulings favorable to the plaintiffs. He rebuffed a move by the defendants to set a February 1986 statute of limitation date for the case and also ruled that Hanford’s plutonium mission made it an “ultra-hazardous activity.”

That ruling means the plaintiffs won’t have to prove contractor negligence at trial. They’ll only have to establish that the amounts of iodine-131 released from Hanford were sufficient to have caused the thyroid cancers and other illnesses.

Van Wart requested and Nielsen granted permission for the defendants to file a motion by Jan. 14 asking Nielsen to reconsider his ultra-hazardous activity ruling. Van Wart said there were “errors” in the ruling, but Nielsen indicated he probably won’t change his mind.

Nielsen said his rulings “should go up to the 9th Circuit to be tested.”

“I’m not contemplating scheduling another 2,000 cases for trial right after the bellwethers,” but would make time for the appellate rulings, Nielsen said.