Silica Cover-Up at DOE Facility in Nevada

Those of you familiar with the history of occupational safety and health in this country may remember the Hawks Nest incident in the early 1930's where hundreds of men died and over a thousand fell ill from acute silicosis contracted during the building of Union Carbide's Hawk's Nest Tunnel through Gauley Mountain in West Virginia.

Thank God, humankind has made progress since then. Or....fast forward 60 years....

Energy Department officials have initiated an investigation into whether Yucca Mountain Project field notes were altered to misrepresent tunnel workers' exposure to harmful silica dust.

The request is expected to form a base for a broader probe into worker health conditions during early excavation and peak tunneling at the nuclear waste repository site a decade ago, Energy Department officials said Thursday.

According to the Department of Labor,

Silicosis is a disabling, nonreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. Silica is the second most common mineral in the earth's crust and is a major component of sand, rock and mineral ores. Overexposure to dust that contains microscopic particles of crystalline silica can cause scar tissue to form in the lungs, which reduces the lung's ability to extract oxygen from the air we breathe.

And it gets worse. It seems that an industrial hygienist assigned to the project, Judy Kallas, alleges that she was ordered to falsify air monitoring records so that the exposures would appear to be much lower than they really were.

Kallas said she was told what to write about the length of time that monitors recorded airborne dust levels inside the tunnel. She said those notes were taken as well and made the basis for official reports.
On paper, the dust concentrations would appear to be diluted by time, or lower than they really were inside the tunnel, she said.

Filters where the dust accumulated inside the monitors were sent to a laboratory for verification and analysis of what type of particles were in the dust.

Kallas said her notes were altered quite often during the four months she worked for project contractor Kiewit Construction, from April 16, 1996, to Aug. 9, 1996. Kiewit constructed the tunnel from 1994 to 1997.

Kallas was fired by the company for "disregard of authority and directions of supervisor," according to a copy of her employee profile.

Kallas said she was told what to write about the length of time that monitors recorded airborne dust levels inside the tunnel. She said those notes were taken as well and made the basis for official reports.

On paper, the dust concentrations would appear to be diluted by time, or lower than they really were inside the tunnel, she said.

Filters where the dust accumulated inside the monitors were sent to a laboratory for verification and analysis of what type of particles were in the dust.

Kallas said her notes were altered quite often during the four months she worked for project contractor Kiewit Construction, from April 16, 1996, to Aug. 9, 1996. Kiewit constructed the tunnel from 1994 to 1997.

Kallas was fired by the company for "disregard of authority and directions of supervisor," according to a copy of her employee profile.

Officials with Kiewit's headquarters in Nebraska have not returned a telephone call placed earlier this week seeking their comment.

When she tried to report concerns to managers about altering her field, Kallas said, notes she was told to follow her supervisor's instructions

"I said what they were telling me to do was illegal. Then they reminded me that the only reason I was there was because DOE required somebody with my credentials to be there," she said.

Mining began in 1992, but it was not until 1996 that better ventilation was installed and workers were provided with appropriate respirators. The Energy Department is investigating and Nevada Senator Harry Reid has called on the Department of Labor and OSHA to investigate. According to Reid, "The DOE's policy of self-regulation, to the extent it enforced worker health standards, has apparently failed to ensure the proper safety of its contractor work force."

DOE had announced a silica screening program at the end of January after first finding that airborne limits of silica had been exceeded.

More here.