Audit finds gaps in health screening

WASHINGTON -- Health screening might be falling short for some workers at the Nevada Test Site, according to a Department of Energy inspection report released Wednesday.

Some workers were not screened even though they were assigned to the program that looks for evidence of exposure to radiological elements at work sites, the audit reported. Others were tested even though it was unclear whether they needed to be, the audit said, because records were spotty.

In other cases, workers were selected for testing based not on their potential for exposure, but rather on their willingness to undergo urine testing.

Similar problems were discovered at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium enrichment site.

Inspectors warned that problems such as these could make it difficult for the government to weigh future health claims by employees.

The lack of authoritative records has crippled the efforts of thousands of former nuclear workers to get compensation for cancers and other diseases that stemmed from being exposed to radiation and toxins when they were employed at nuclear weapons factories.

"Without an improvement in the control process for personnel monitoring, department and contractor employees may be at risk for occupational exposures to radioactive material that might not be detected," auditors said in the 24-page report issued by the Energy Department inspector general.

The audit was based on a sampling of records at the test site and other DOE facilities from January 2006 to May of this year. It said the test site did not have a formal process to determine which workers should be screened.

Kevin Rohrer, a test site spokesman, said the audit identified that "our documentation is lacking, and we agree we can improve on that."

But Rohrer maintained that workers are safe.

"Our current bioassay program is in compliance with all DOE orders and regulations, and this additional documentation that was needed would go to further enhance the program," Rohrer said.

"We are fixing it to incorporate the recommendations of the IG report," Rohrer said, adding that since 1998, "we have had only six workers who have registered any internal doses, and all of them were well below regulatory limits."

The inspectors focused on the sites' confirmatory bioassay testing, which identifies workers for health screens after they emerge from work areas where they might be at risk of incidental exposures.

The screening is held in conjunction with air and soil monitoring at the sites, and other worker protections, DOE officials said.

The Energy Department requires mandatory bioassay testing for a "small number" of workers likely to receive a effective dose equivalent to 100 millirems per year, the regulatory limit for public exposure, said George Malosh, chief operating officer for the DOE Office of Science.

For comparison, someone undergoing a chest X-ray generally receives 5 millirems of radiation exposure.

For others workers, bioassay testing is optional, Malosh said, particularly because air monitoring is the "preferred method" for measuring worksite radiation levels.

At the test site, workers at the low-level nuclear waste facility and those performing environmental cleanup of historic nuclear explosion sites are considered for health screening, Rohrer said. Also, employees working on weapons stockpile experiments that involve nuclear materials are enrolled for screening.

Rohrer said that this year 325 workers were enrolled in the bioassay program and 250 were given health screenings after working in areas where they might have been exposed.