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Former Workers Say Pinellas Nuclear Plant's Radiation, Chemicals Connected To Cancer

Gordon Dempsey / News Channel 8

Betsy Wood, accompanied by friends and family, stand at the grave site of Jim Wood.

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By STEVE ANDREWS | News Channel 8

Published: November 1, 2007

Updated: 11/01/2007 08:35 pm

WFLA Steve Andrews Report | Part 2
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LARGO - Throughout the Cold War, a plant in Pinellas County secretly produced electronic and mechanical equipment for nuclear weapons – including triggers. Built in 1957, the work at the Department of Energy Pinellas Plant in Largo was highly classified.

By 2001, the government determined that many of the nuclear weapons workers at 292 plants across the country were developing illnesses related to their workplace.

Employees were exposed to doses of radiation and toxic, carcinogenic chemicals, according to the Department of Energy.

Many of those workers had no idea until they were contacted by the department.

Congress passed a law in 2001 called the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act to provide workers with medical benefits and a one-time payout of $150,000 if they proved their illness was related to their work.

The Pinellas Plant employed about 2,200 people.

Jim Wood, from Clearwater, was one of them. He died from brain cancer about a year ago.

"I had the most wonderful father in the world," said Daphne Wood.

FROM LEFT: Jim Wood with daughter

Daphne and wife Betsy.

"I watched my father – this athletic guy who could do anything – go from that, to not being able to hardly speak or understand or walk," she said.

Daphne, and her mother, Betsy, continue to struggle with their loss. They're also struggling to prepare for their legal effort to prove Jim Wood's cancer was connected to the chemicals and radiation he was exposed to.

Since his job was classified, he was forbidden to discuss it outside of work.

Betsy Wood said that he worked on big machines, but she didn't know much else.

She knew that her husband worked for a time with the plant's hazardous materials crew. Since his death, she has recently learned he was involved in cleaning up a tritium spill.

Tritium is a radioactive chemical.

The doctor who cared for Jim Wood wrote his wife, informing her that in his opinion any exposure to radiation could have contributed to the rare form of cancer that killed her husband.

There are no records that document Wood's exposure, so the Department of Labor forwarded his case to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for evaluation.

Using mathematical calculations, the institute reconstructed the doses of radiation that Wood may have been exposed to throughout his 15 years on the job, from 1982 to 1997.

The institute forwarded the information back to the Department of Labor, which determined Jim's thyroid problems – but not his brain cancer – are related to exposure.

The government said that since it has no process to test the brain for exposure, it uses the thyroid as a gauge. Since experts determined the thyroid was contaminated, the family contends it only makes sense that the brain was affected as well.

The family promised Jim on his death bed that they would continue his fight.

"We're like, 'We're fine don't worry about us,'" Daphne said to her father. " 'We just love you and we're going to do what's right in your name.'"

The chemicals and radiation from the plant can cause 22 different types of cancers, including brain cancer, according to Robert Bossard, a former plant worker who heads up an effort to educate his former co-workers.

Bossard, of Seminole, suffered exposure to beryllium, a highly toxic metal, which he says will lead to cancer.

Bossard said he has been to too many funerals for co-workers. Many have died in their mid-50s or younger.

"We didn't know what we worked with for 26 years because we had no idea what it was," he said.

Bossard contends workers had little protection against the radiation and chemicals they were exposed to. He said the plant's managers are receiving benefits, while front-line workers are being rejected.

"We had no protective equipment to speak of," Bossard said.

Bob Puccinelli is on his third round of chemotherapy. He worked in maintenance at the plant. He remembered working on an air conditioning unit for several days and being told to leave his tools behind for testing.

When Puccinelli inquired about his tools, he was told to get new ones because the tools he worked with were too hot to be returned.

Puccinelli said the only protection he had during that job was a lab coat.

Puccinelli said three members of his work crew now have cancer.

There are no records documenting the amount of radiation Puccinelli was exposed to, he said. The Department of Labor rejected his claim that his cancer was caused by his exposure.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, is seeking an investigation of the program, claiming the Bush administration is working to limit payouts to sick employees.

These former workers say U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, an Indian Shores Republican whose district includes the plant, has been quiet on the issue.

Calls made to Young's office have drawn no response.

The Department of Labor's inspector general confirms it is looking into the allegations.

The department is investigating more than 1,000 cases involving former workers who contend their cancers were caused by exposure to radiation and chemicals from the job.

To date, 79 of these workers have received compensation.

Production of nuclear components at the Pinellas Plant ended and in March 1995, when the government sold the Pinellas Plant to the Pinellas County Industry Council.

It's now called the Young-Rainey Star Center.

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