Environmental contamination, if not fully remediated, will not only damage a complex ecosystem but could seriously affect the health of people living in the Columbia River Basin. Hanford workers are not the only ones at high risk. Native American tribes have treaty rights to Hanford's resources and have traditionally used the water, fish, plants, and animals.

Since the advent of the nuclear age with the production and detonation of the first atomic bomb, physicians have learned a great deal about the biological effects of radiation on the human body. Medical studies on Japanese victims of the nuclear war, as well as workers in the nuclear industry, have led to efforts to clarify safe levels of radiation exposure. Every decade has brought a marked decrease in what is believes to be a "safe" dose of radiation.

The most recent position of experts at the National Academies of Science is that of zero tolerance. This means that no radiation exposure is totally safe. For every small exposure, there is an incremental increase in the risk of developing cancer.

A given cell or group of cells exposed to radiation can undergo cell death, disruption, of cell function, or genetic changes in germ cells that can be passed on to offspring. Additionally, genetic changes within any cell may, as it reproduces itself, be passed on – eventually leading to cancer. Numerous studies confirm deaths and genetic damage from radiation. In fact, radiation is the most clearly proven and thoroughly tested cause of cancer.

Though covered up by our government, above ground U.S. nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands during the Cold War led to acute radiation illness and deaths, early deaths from cancers, and major birth defects among the island inhabitants. These effects were caused by the fallout from radioactive material in the air and ingestion of contaminated food and water. Unfortunately, the effects of this nuclear testing in 1954 continue to affect Marshall Island inhabitants with excess thyroid cancers. Their projected incidence of thyroid cancer is 200% above average. Other cancers will be 9 to 10% more frequent than average.

The World Health Organization recently summarized health impacts from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. This accident, in April 1986, is the worst in nuclear power plant history. Dozens of workers were killed and radioactive plumes were sent into the atmosphere. Radioactive fallout spread well beyond the Soviet Union to Europe and North America. People near Chernobyl who were young at the time of the accident are now at greatest risk of thyroid cancer. Other cancer deaths exceed average levels by 3 to 4%. Non-cancerous impacts from radiation can also be serious. Cataracts of the eyes, both in time of onset and severity, were directly related to the dose of radiation the individual received. An increased death rate was also noted for cardiovascular disease.

These non-cancerous effects from radiation had been proven in cancer patients treated with X-rays. Heart disease was noted in children treated with chest irradiation fro Hodgkins disease. Besides cataracts and heart disease, radiation may alter brain and kidney function. Sterilization of both men and women can occur with relatively small doses of radiation. These effects are now so well documented they have become part of standard radiotherapy textbooks.

Hopefully, no new populations will be devastated by a nuclear bomb or a disaster from a nuclear power plant. Future risks will likely be from low-dose, repetitive radiation exposure. The long-term effects of low-dose radiation remain somewhat controversial. Studies at USDOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggest low-dose exposure may induce a complicated set of cellular repair mechanisms. These scientists admit that low-dose exposure initially causes serious protein changes in the cells, though they question the significance of its long-term effects.

Epidemiologic studies of cancers in populations exposed to low-dose radiation, however, do suggest increased risk consistent with the National Academies of Science report. Th World Health Organization's report of continued increases in thyroid cancer in the areas of fallout from the Chernobyl disaster is just such an example.

Another study done at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard noted that "a significant positive association was found between leukemia mortality and external whole-body radiation exposure" in both enlisted and civilian workers.

A report in the British Medical Journal reviewed the risk of cancer in workers exposed to low-dose radiation. "The results suggest that there is a small excess risk of cancer, even at low doses and dose rates typically received by nuclear workers in this study."

In 2000, congress enacted the U.S. Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. With this, the government recognized that former and current workers have been at risk of early death from cancer. The federal government also acknowledged that low-dose exposure over an extended period is the cause. Cancers of all organ systems, leukemia, and multiple myeloma are all recognized as possible outcomes of work related radiation.

Despite the known biologic effects of radiation, it has been difficult for former workers to "prove" that their cancers were caused by their work at Hanford. This is partly because these same cancers occur in the population at large. But more importantly, there has never been a comprehensive record of the former workers' total exposure, or all the job risks at the different sites where they worked. This complicates the workers' ability to obtain the compensation they deserve.

Environmental contamination from Hanford can affect the public as well, not only through potential future use of the groundwater, but also through the air. At both Hanford and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, fires have swept over contaminated sagebrush. Smoke and fumes from the burning carried plutonium into the air. This could have been a serious threat to downwind citizens. Fortunately, no serious known problems with humans occurred thanks to wind direction and fire control.

Not so fortunate are the workers exposed to dust containing beryllium, a non-radioactive light metal widely used in the nuclear weapons industry. When inhaled this material can cause chronic, progressive, and potentially fatal lung failure. Many workers at Hanford and other weapons production sites have already become afflicted with this debilitating and deadly illness. The severity of this problem has been so great that congress directed the USDOE to establish regulations for the prevention of chronic beryllium disease, as well as care and compensation for workers affected by beryllium.

Beryllium is just one of hundreds of toxic substances used at Hanford. In the tank vapors alone, more than 1200 chemicals have been documented. Depending on the concentrations, many of these substances pose serious health threats such as illness, long-term disabilities, cancer, organ failure, and death.