Daily Em^ra/dEdltOricll Truth trickling in on Hanford radiation After 40 years the US government lias finally ad mitted that people living near the Hanford nuclear weapons plants were exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation between 1044 and 1047. A study released last week by a panel of scientific and technical experts states that one in every 20 people absorbed “significant" amounts of radiation For the three years ending in 1047 the plant’s officials secretly authorized the release of the largest amounts of radi ation ever made public. The current level of radiation considered safe hv tlie Department of Energy (DOF) is 025 rads. A rad is a measure of radiation equal to what is absorbed in about a dozen chest X-rays. The study revealed that 5 percent of tin1 population surrounding the Richland. Wash, nu clear plant received as much as 33 rads of radiation, or about 1,200 times the currently-recognized safe dose. How much has the government known and how long have it known it? In 1072 the Atomic Energy Commission, predeces sor of the DOE. discovered that underground tanks were leaking millions of gallons ol the most radioac tive wastes Hv the mid-1980s, some residents of the small towns east of the plant started becoming dl from thvroid diseases. Others were dying The problem is evident. The United States was in such a hurry in the late 1940s to devise weapons that would end World War II. there wasn’t time to test the safety of the procedures used to manufacture the weap ons. Americans were so cuught up in the wave of patri otism. and the fear of Nazism, that possible effects of radiation were the last thing on anyone's mind Hut World War II has been over for more than 40 years and the government remains remarkably hushed on the effects of radiation. The government released documents in 1980 confirming that radioactive iodine from Hanford reached the civilian population in the re gion. but not until last week’s revelations did officials admit that the levels were potentially harmful. Unfortunately, those most vulnerable to the radio active iodine were children because they drank milk from cows that ate contaminated grass. These infants probably received the largest exposure to the iodine, also. It is estimated that approximately 20.000 babies were born in the affected region between 1944 and 1960 It’s amazing how quick the United States built atomic weapons when it needed them. It's just as amazing how slow it has been in releasing information regarding the effet Is of iodine radiation. It's especially disheartening when the amount of iodine radiation re leased during the late 1940s was 26,000 times the amount released during the Three Mile Island mu tear accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 Hut the real t lincher in this ordeal is the govern ment's announcement th.it it will not be responsible for human disorders resulting from the radiation re lease Those affected b\ the release of radiation will not be able to sue the government. At the very least, the government owes free medical testing and care to those who might have been affected by radiation leaks Oregon D.til\ _ _ Emerald PC) ^icm. Orrpifl V 4*1' The OrogoM L'aiiy Emerald s published Tuesday and Thursday during the? sun irtff by the Oregon Daily Emerald Put shmg Co at the University of 0»eg< '* Eu ge- e. O'egon Daily pubh *!" • begins with the ta' The Emerald is operated independently ot the University wdh offices on the thi'd ' f the Ert« Memorial Uni -■ and is 4 member of the Ass.- sited Press The Emerald >s private property The unlawful removal or use of papers is pri ••mutable by law Editor AO .■ News Managing Editor ' ; m-' R i Editorial Editor Ri ■!■ General Staff Advertising Director ■ r ln- Assistant to the Publisher • • Production Manager M * •• - Mi Advertising Coordinator t d-a Da • Classified Sales Peggy M (i ! Accounts Receivable Circulation Newsroom 346 SSI 1 Classified Advertising 346 4343 Display Advertising 346 3712 Production Graphic Services 3*6 4381 Viitf Life overrated In response tn Melinda Met k's letterViolence' [01)1 |ul\ l