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Former Flats worker makes his final plea
Cancer victim presents his case for compensation
Special to the Rocky ©
An incision arcs across Charlie Wolf's scalp after surgery to remove a tumor he
claims is tied to his nuclear weapons work.
ï Former Flats worker makes his final plea
By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
January 25, 2007
Former Rocky Flats engineer Charlie Wolf had just one hour Wednesday to persuade
a federal hearing officer to reverse her colleagues' decision and rule that
Wolf's nuclear weapons work was responsible for his brain cancer.
Wolf, who lives in Highlands Ranch, has a 6-inch surgery scar curving across his
bald head where a tumor is making its third attempt to kill him.
The 46-year-old father of three struggles with the damage it has done. During
the hearing, he needed help verbalizing simple words like "cluster" - as in
"cluster of brain cancers found in Rocky Flats workers."
Wolf pointed to missing records of his radiation exposure and places in the
calculations where doses had been subtracted instead of added. He also brought
along experts in radiation-caused cancer to testify.
Still, Wolf doesn't hold out much hope that the decision on his appeal will be
favorable.
Wolf is one of 1,330 former Rocky Flats workers with major illnesses who have
been denied $150,000 in federal compensation and medical care. To collect, they
must prove their illnesses were caused by exposure to radiation or toxic
chemicals on the job.
Wolf's "final adjudication hearing" Wednesday offers a glimpse at just how
difficult that is.
With 12 people crammed into a tiny conference room on the 16th floor of a
downtown Denver high-rise, Department of Labor hearing officer Sandra Vicens-
Pecenka was apologetic about the space, and the rush.
"I have another person waiting, just like you, and another after that," she
explained to Wolf.
Even before the hearing, Wolf, who supervised the demolition of a Rocky Flats
plutonium building from 1995 to 2000, figured he was in trouble. That's because
he never received key records he'd requested to prepare his case.
From the documents he did receive, it appeared his case had been decided without
a review of Wolf's radiation exposure during his 14 years at the Savannah River
nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina.
He also was unable to find out which co-workers, companies and other witnesses
were interviewed about his case, or the number of other atom bomb workers with
brain tumors who have received or been denied compensation.
Wolf's neuro-oncologist, Dr. Edward Arenson, of Littleton, testified that "there
is no question" that Wolf's highly malignant tumor was caused by his exposure to
radiation and toxic chemicals on the job. He compared the department's denial of
compensation with looking at an elephant and seeing a zebra.
In contrast, the Labor Department's records showed it paid a cardiologist $300
an hour for three hours to decide that the medical literature did not show any
correlation between radiation and Wolf's type of brain tumor. When Wolf asked
for the materials checked by the cardiologist, he was sent a search from
WebMD.com - a source generally aimed at patients, not experts.
The cardiologist's report directly contradicted one of the documents he
reviewed: a calculation from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health, which ruled that on-the- job radiation was 24 percent likely to have
caused Wolf's brain tumor.
Still, that was short of the 50 percent required for compensation, so Wolf was
denied.
Dr. Jim Ruttenber, a University of Colorado epidemiologist who has studied the
high number of brain cancers at Rocky Flats for decades, testified that NIOSH
should have counted the likelihood as two to four times higher.
Wolf's wife Kathy, also a former Rocky Flats engineer, said after the hearing
that even though officials compiled a huge document listing the dangerous
chemicals used at Rocky Flats, toxic chemicals weren't considered in her
husband's case. That's because there are no records of individual exposures to
the chemicals, she said.
"You'd have to be doused with benzene" (a chemical that can cause leukemia) for
officials to consider it, she said.
Vicens-Pecenca said she will give Wolf a month to add written testimony to his
case file. Then, she'll send a record of the hearing and the file to a Labor
Department health physicist for his input. After that, she'll make a final
decision.
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