We are certainly sympathetic to your condition and hope it improves. There are many resources for you to access that will help you determine what actions to take, not the least of which is this website which has chronicled our investigation of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, aka Rocketdyne, since 1998. You would do well to connect with your neighbors and environmental activists who have been fighting to get Rocketdyne cleaned up for decades. They include the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, Committee to Bridge the Gap, the Aerospace Contamination Museum of Education and the Rocketdyne Information Society (a forum).

These resources may be very helpful to you in your quest to find out how and why you and others have these intestinal problems. And, of course, this website and comments section are open 24/7 to field your questions and discuss your observations as you search for answers. Please let us know if these recommended groups help you.

Thank you

Thank you for your tireless efforts on behalf of all of us radiation worker claimants. My family was not only extremely pleased to finally hear the U.S. Department of Labor’s admission that my father’s work as a Sr. Research Engineer at the Rocketdyne SSFL Area IV, from 1955-60 made a contribution to his early passing, but the $150K bridged the gap in my mothers retirement plan. When my father passed away within six months of discovering lung cancer at the age of 49 in 1982, it created obvious complications for my mother with two children still at home, who had no college education or work experience, and large medical bills. As a legal Italian immigrant in 1955, it’s safe to assume that being a stay at home mom would not have been too unfamiliar in our American households.

My mother’s claim started in 2001, after my uncle sent me a Southern Californian news article about your battle with Rocketdyne in Santa Susana. Seven years later, after the dose reconstruction process, our claim was denied. To my luck and surprise, in 2009 I came across the Special Exposure Cohort on the internet the day after it was granted. We quickly re-submitted the claim and were paid. I am embarrassed to not have understood until reading this article that our claim followed your personal efforts every step of the way.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God bless your health and the health of the families everywhere that you have fought for.

Also thanks to Michael Collins for his work in this area and the recognition of Ms. Klea and others that they so much deserve.

Best wishes,

Phil, on behalf of the Durand family in the Northwest

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the roots.”
-Henry David Thoreau

Perfect piece, Michael. Thank you, thank you.

Thank you Bonnie for all you have done.

John Pace