By Jacque Day
Paducah, Ky. – About a hundred people turned out to WKCTC's Emerging Technology Center this morning to hear the results of the first definitive study about mortality patterns among Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers. The study sampled death certificates for 6,759 people who worked at the plant between 1952 and 2003. Researchers found the overall mortality rate, including all causes of death, was actually lower than national average. But the plant workers exhibited a slightly higher-than-average number of deaths from leukemia and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Gary Vander Boegh, a former plant worker, was one of many on-hand who questioned the validity of the documentation used in the study.
"You're only as good as the information that you might pick up. And what we did was find out that when I had my cancer evaluation, lo and behold, they had me classified as something I have never been. Do not give up your claim because somebody at DOE said your records aren't there."
Vander Boegh is a Department of Energy whistle blower and now assists plant workers in appealing compensation claims. Several people in attendance came to air concerns about illnesses, their own or that of a family member. Some say they were told there was no way to trace the illnesses to exposures at the plant.