Two lawsuits were filed Wednesday in federal court against the Department of Energy and its Hanford tank farm contractor to better protect workers from chemical vapors. One lawsuit was filed by the state of Washington as a Hanford regulator and the other by the watchdog organization Hanford Challenge and Local 598, which represents Hanford pipefitters and welders. Both lawsuits seek court orders for protective measures rather than to collect fines or penalties. The Department of Energy since the late 1980s has known about the problem of worker vapor exposures from the underground tanks that store chemicals once used to dissolve nuclear fuel rods, the state said in its lawsuit filed in Eastern Washington District federal court. Since then, 19 reports have looked at the problem and at least 120 workers have been exposed to chemical vapors from Hanford tank waste without adequate protections yet being put in place, said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson at a Seattle press conference. More than 1,500 chemicals have been detected in the vapors in the headspace of Hanford’s tanks, and the vapors can escape through tank equipment and be inhaled by workers, according to Hanford Challenge. Some workers exposed to the vapors have had serious long-term health effects, including brain damage, lung disease, nervous system disorders, and cancers, the Hanford Challenge and Local 598 lawsuit asserts
The most recent study of Hanford tank vapors, which was led by the Savannah River National Laboratory, concluded in October that symptoms being reported by tank farm worker,s such as headaches, nosebleeds, coughing, dizziness, and nausea, may be caused by exposure to short, intermittent, and higher concentration exposures to chemical vapors. Verifying and quantifying the exposures would require a first-of-a-kind program for vapor management that would be built around expanded data collection, new research studies, and new technologies, said tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions in a statement. WRPS has increased respiratory controls for tank farm workers and also is working on a multiyear, phased plan to implement actions to address recommendations in the latest report, it said. The Department of Energy said it is working closely with WRPS to implement the first phase of activities.