Former Metals and Controls Workers Battling Cancer
in Attleboro, Massachusetts
In the late 1950s, most of the young
men and women who agreed to take jobs manufacturing nuclear reactor fuel
components at Metals & Controls in Attleboro were just starting careers and
families. Few apparently gave any
thought to the dangers of working with or around enriched uranium and other
radioactive materials. Most workers at Metals & Controls that later became part
of Texas Instruments never considered their job a potential threat to their
health. Workers have been quoted as
saying, “ We were all young and didn’t
know a lot about what was going on…”
Originally, according to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), work related to radioactive materials was conducted
in at least three buildings at the Forest Street complex. Later, operations
were consolidated into a single structure, Building 10, that was constructed in
1956. Some of the wastes from the manufacturing operations were buried in an
outdoor area next to Building 11. Small amounts of radium 226 were also found
by radiological surveys in Building 1, the building closest to Forest Street. Because it could find no documentation
limiting potential radiation exposure to a particular building, according to a
2010 Labor Department bulletin, the National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health assumes that workers could have been exposed to radioactive
materials in any part of the Metals & Controls site.
Attorney Balser’s father, Charles
Balser, was one of those workers. Mr.
Balser began working for Metals & Controls in 1950 and continued to be a
loyal and dedicated employee until his retirement some forty (40) years
later. A short six months after his
retirement, Attorney Balser’s father was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away in 1993 as a result of that
cancer. Attorney Balser remembers as a
teenager the many occasions when she picked up her father at Building 1 off of
Forest Street and at the more newly constructed Building 10 set farther back in
the Texas Instruments Campus. She
vividly remembers the red film badge dosimeters Mr. Balser wore that he had
been told were detecting the radiation levels he was exposed to while at work
so as to protect him from dangerous levels of radiation. Clearly this protection failed.
Now, more than 50 years later, many of
those who worked long hours assembling nuclear parts or working in test labs,
including Attorney Balser’s father, battled or are still battling cancer, and
many – apparently including the government – know the cancers may have been
caused by their work in the nuclear industry at the Metals & Controls
Division of Texas Instruments.
According to a 2001 U.S. Department of
Energy report containing newly declassified information about government
contractors that processed uranium for nuclear weapons, Metals & Controls
and later Texas Instruments fabricated uranium fuel elements for the Naval
Nuclear Propulsion Program from 1952
through 1965. The plant, was the
first non-government facility allowed to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors. The company's nuclear operations were so
extensive that the Department of Labor classified the Attleboro site as an
"atomic weapons employer."
Texas Instruments sold the Attleboro
manufacturing complex in 2006, but has never tried to contact workers or their
surviving family members to inform them that they might be eligible for federal
compensation or medical help for their cancer. Texas Instruments claims it has
cooperated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on issues
related to cancer claims and has made information available to its former
workers. The workers tell a far
different story. From all accounts, Texas Instruments has not even used its
personnel records to reach out to former employees or their families. The proof
lies with the minute number of employees who have filed claims or received
help.
The company began cleanup of uranium
contamination in 1981 after nuclear operations ceased and the site's government
license to manufacture nuclear materials lapsed. Decontamination of the plant
was completed in 1997 according to the Energy Department and it received a
sign-off from federal and state officials, who said the site needed no further
remediation.
But former workers, including those who
fabricated nuclear fuels and switches, disposed of scrap and performed
laboratory testing, still carried in their bodies the effects of exposure to
radioactive materials and other substances. While Texas Instruments may have
cleaned up its campus former workers, still carried in their bodies the effects
of exposure to radioactive materials and other substances.
In addition, some of the waste from the
plant - as well as from the local jewelry industry - ended up in the former
Shpack landfill on the Norton-Attleboro line. Radioactive waste at the landfill
has also allegedly been linked to cancer in lawsuits filed by two residents
against Texas Instruments and several other landfill users. The plaintiffs
contend they contracted cancer because of the dumping.
The Makepeace Division of Engelhard
Industries in Plainville also fabricated nuclear fuel elements from1957 to
1962, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) records. Manufacturing at Makepeace involved the use
of natural, depleted and enriched uranium. That site was decontaminated
in 1963.
You may contact Attorney Balser for assistance to insure you receive the full compensation you entitled to
under the Act by calling (508) 699-2500 Ext 11 or make an appointment by
using this link.
