Sick Hanford workers speak out for first time
KING5 News Seattle, Apr. 8, 2014: An unprecedented string of unknown chemical vapor exposures has sent more than 2 dozen workers to the hospital of doctor since mid-March. We found the situation is far more serious than the Feds and the contractors are letting on. All of the employees were not and still are not back to work. And many have symptoms far worse than irritation. Right before coming to the interview, a doctor cauterized Becky’s nose to stop a week’s worth of nosebleeds. And Steve spent all of the day before throwing up. Her symptoms nosebleeds, intense headaches, sweats and shaking Steve deals with burning lungs and non-stop coughing — using inhalers and narcotics to cope. He’s still struggling to breathe Becky still has a really bad headache, but her biggest concern, this is a scary one, she’s not thinking clearly. She says she’s forgetting a lot of things and that’s really frightening to her. They aren’t the only ones. I’ve talked to others who say their lungs are burning, they don’t feel right, but they’ve been cleared to work, so they’re out on the job.
Becky Holland, health physics technician and 28-year veteran of the Hanford Site: “I felt kind of dizzy like I couldn’t walk. It was hard for me to get my nose to stop bleeding.”
Steve Ellingson, health physics technician at Hanford: “Now I’m getting worried because this is two weeks and it’s not better. Yesterday was the worst day I’ve had. I’m getting worried that this may be the way that I am the rest of my life.”
http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/Sick-Hanford-workers-speak-out-for-first-time-254461061.html
They were given tylenol, a throat lozenge and cleared them to go back to work.
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