Scores Living, Working Near Nuke Plants Report Illnesses

The newspaper interviewed 410 people whose ailments include tremors, memory loss, fatigue and a variety of breathing, muscular and reproductive problems. The newspaper conceded that the study was not scientific. No direct link between the illnesses and the nuclear sites has been established, but the sick people want the federal government to conduct a comprehensive study to try to find the cause, the story said.

“It’s like the devil has been let loose in my body,” said Freddie Fulmer, 41, a former worker at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River nuclear site near Aiken, S.C., who suffers from a degenerative joint and spine disease, kidney ailments and a rare disorder that causes his immune system to attack his organs.

The Mound nuclear weapons plant was one of 13 sites included in The Tennessean’s study. However, the study focused on six primary weapons sites that did not include the 306-acre site about 10 miles south of Dayton. In a story on secondary sites, the paper included an interview with a Miamisburg woman who said she believes her health problems may be related to the plant. The woman said she has migraine headaches, thyroid problems, high blood pressure, three types of arthritis and chronic fatigue.

In explaining its story, the newspaper said the reporters were acting as journalists, not as scientists.

A federal health study by the Atlanta-based Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, released earlier this year, found the Mound plant, which was built in 1949 and produced triggers for nuclear weapons, poses no apparent health hazard to nearby residents.

Last year, The Tennessean found scores of people suffering various ailments around the Oak Ridge nuclear complex in East Tennessee. U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate and the agency has begun conducting studies.