Rocky Flats Plant was a nuclear weapons plant that was located 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver. Workers used plutonium to build nuclear weapon triggers from 1952-1989. In 1969 a fire broke out at the plant confirming for the first time, that radioactive materials had escaped off-site. The fire quickly spread as many of the fire alarms had been removed to make room for more production. This facility was lacking in ethical values, specifically beneficence and non-maleficence. The plant was producing nuclear weapons which brings harm to both the workers and the public. Removing the fire alarms risks the lives of other people. By 1989, manufacturing of plutonium stopped.
My grandfather was a chemical operator at Rocky Flats for 26 years. In 2007 he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in his hip bone, ribs, and spine. He underwent chemotherapy and eventually developed pneumonia while in the hospital that led to his death in 2008. Studies have suggested that there is an increased likelihood of developing multiple myeloma for those who have been exposed to ionizing radiation such as plutonium (Center for Environmental Health Studies, n.d.). Another study looked specifically at mortality rate of workers from three nuclear plants including Rocky Flats and found that multiple myeloma was the only cancer found to show a statistically significant correlation with radiation exposure (Gilbert, E.S. et al., 1989).
Multiple myeloma is a malignancy of plasma cells. This results
in overproduction of light and heavy chain monoclonal immunoglobulins. Multiple
myeloma tends to present with bone destruction, hypercalcemia, anemia, renal
damage, and increase susceptibility to infection. The pathogenesis of multiple myeloma
is poorly understood; however, it appears to reflect a chromosomal abnormality with
many translocations involving chromosomes 12 and 14 (Alexander, D., 2007). As
unstable radioactive isotopes decay, they release energy that can cause damage
to a cell’s DNA which fuels mutations that can eventually lead to cancer (Ghose,
T., 2017). Unfortunately, studies on multiple myeloma and plutonium are limited
and the mechanisms are not well understood.
References:
Alexander,
D., Mink, P., Adami, H., Cole, P., Mandel, J., Oken, M., & Trichopoulos, D.
(2007, April 02). Multiple myeloma: A review of the epidemiologic literature.
Retrieved September 06, 2020, from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.22718
Center for
Environmental Health Studies. (n.d.). Multiple Myeloma (MM) and Exposure to
Ionizing Radiation ... Retrieved September 6, 2020, from
http://www2.clarku.edu/mtafund/prodlib/jsi/Multiple
Myeloma_and_Exposure_to_Ionizing_Radiation.pdf
Ghose, T.
(2017, May 10). Hanford Disaster: What Happens to Someone Who's Exposed to
Plutonium? Retrieved September 06, 2020, from
https://www.livescience.com/59042-how-does-plutonium-damage-the-body.html
Gilbert, E.
S., Fry, S. A., Wiggs, L. D., Voelz, G. L., Cragle, D. L., & Petersen, G.
R. (1989). Analyses of Combined Mortality Data on Workers at the Hanford Site,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. Radiation
Research, 120(1), 19. doi:10.2307/3577633
Hi Megan! Just wanted to say thank you for sharing this piece about your grandfather. It also gave me a little insight into Colorado. Did you know that houses are being built around the Rocky Flats land and the people who live there have to sign a contract saying that they will not plant anything due to the possible plutonium still in the land? Insane.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, when I was reading this, I thought of Hiroshima and how that may have affected those who survived with that massive amount of radiation exposure. I tried looking for information regarding multiple myeloma but there was not much evidence for risk given the excess exposure of radiation (Hsu et al., 2013). Also, insane. Although, I did find a study that said those who were exposed to radiation of greater magnitude were more likely to show symptoms 20+ years after exposure (Ichimaru et al., 1982). This may be impacting why studies are limited.
A very interesting and personal post, Megan! Rocky Flats made me think about other nuclear accidents, specifically Chernobyl. An article published in 2012 claimed there is epidemiologic evidence of ionizing radiation exposure relating to multiple myeloma, with morbidity increasing in more highly contaminated areas (Wiwanitkit, S., Wiwanitkit, V., 2012). Multiple myeloma was also prevalent in Chernobyl recovery workers, who also had high rates of myeloid leukemia. As Christina mentioned in her comment, these authors also noted that prevalence increased at a 20 year period. Another study noted high prevalence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among Chernobyl recovery workers (Kesminiene et al., 2010). I'm curious what protocols these Chernobyl workers followed, and what (if any) waivers they had to sign prior to beginning their work. It seems crazy that anyone would willingly put themselves in that position!
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Kesminiene, A., Evrard, A. S., Ivanov, V. K., Malakhova, I. V., Kurtinaitis, J., Stengrevics, A., Tekkel, M., Anspaugh, L. R., Bouville, A., Chekin, S., Chumak, V. V., Drozdovitch, V., Gapanovich, V., Golovanov, I., Hubert, P., Illichev, S. V., Khait, S. E., Kryuchkov, V. P., Maceika, E., Maksyoutov, M., … Cardis, E. (2008). Risk of hematological malignancies among Chernobyl liquidators. Radiation research, 170(6), 721–735. https://doi.org/10.1667/RR1231.1
Wiwanitkit, S., & Wiwanitkit, V. (2012). Multiple myeloma in post nuclear accident crisis. Indian journal of hematology & blood transfusion : an official journal of Indian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, 28(2), 65–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12288-012-0147-x
Thank you for the post. I am sorry to hear about your Grandfather. I have actually lived near Rocky Flats my entire life, I think I'm just barely into the "safe" zone. It is amazing how many houses have been built in this area in the last 10 years. As a Chemistry major, I find it very interesting that houses are even able to be built. The half life of Plutonium-239 is 24,100 years (Gerde, 2015). It was found that this area had high levels of Plutonium-239 in 1993, the year I was born. Seems fishy. How can the cleanup completely void the area of Plutonium and rid this half-life?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I had an Uncle that worked for Rocky Flats when he was much younger. He made it seem like protocols were not in place and that exposure was great. Although he was very hush hush about this. Maybe I can get more information out of him.
References:
Virginia W. Gerde. (2015). Rocky Flats. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. https://www.britannica.com/place/Rocky-Flats
Thank you for your post, and sorry to hear about your grandfather as well. Recently, one of my friends decided to list their house in the Rocky Mountain flats region that they recently purchased only two years ago. I was confused as his house was beautiful and he proceeded to tell me about the rocky mountain flats region that his house was built upon. I was shocked, although time has gone by since this plant was shut down. The downstream affects are continuing to show. It seemed so strange to me that these big beautiful houses where allowed to be built to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI proceeded to ask about why he purchased this house if he knew about this. As it turns out, with Colorado’s expensive real estate you can get the "most bang for your buck" in this area. Well, for obvious reasons I can only imagine why. Like most people, we tend to have this invincible complex. He believed that this nuclear radiation wouldn’t affect him and that the cleanup was very good. However, in the two years he lived in this house he began to notice weird things started to happen pertaining to his health and his thyroid in particular.
While evidence showing cause and correlation is limited, I remembered a new story I saw on tv. The segment was about two women who started a grassroot campaign to figure out breast cancer prevalence for both women and men living within the rocky mountain flats area. A research done by (Johnson, 1981) showed that exposure to plutonium in this region showed an increased in cancer occurrence in the population. This was also similar to what they saw in survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disasters.
Johnson, C. (1981). Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides near a Nuclear Installation. Ambio, 10(4), 176-182. Retrieved October 2, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4312671