Welcome
Letters from folder
Hazel’s Story: Link TBD
Physicians for Social Responsibility- Los Angeles letter of recommendation
Studies & Articles from folder
NASA's Scare Tactics (info from you and Haakon)
ADDITIONAL READING & References
Contamination and its impact, Santa Susana Field Lab
2012 EPA Radiological Survey, EPA Radiological Background Study and accompanying statistical appendix In 2012, the EPA announced the results of it’s radiological survey of SSFL. It found 291 soil samples with Cesium-137 contamination, at levels up to 1,000 times background and far above EPA’s remediation goals for unrestricted use. Cesium is a powerful emitter of gamma radiation and can cause cancer in any organ. In addition, 153 samples had strontium-90 contamination, at levels up to 284 times background. also far above EPA’s unrestricted remediation goals. Strontium-90 concentrates in bone, where it can cause bone cancer and leukemia. Both strontium and cesium have half-lives of about 30 years.
Preliminary Assessment – Site Inspection Report This November 30, 2007 U.S. EPA Preliminary Assessment-Site Inspection Report of Rocketdyne is 6.43 MB and 52 pages long and an excellent primer on the pollution problems of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. “Multiple operations at the SSFL over the last six decades have resulted in the contamination of surface and subsurface environmental media by various hazardous substances,” the report notes. “Extensive use of the most predominant hazardous substance at the site, trichloroethylene (TCE), has impacted the groundwater beneath the site. Several TCE plumes exist at Santa Susana Field Laboratory PA/SI Report 2 throughout the site. Drinking water wells at the site were contaminated with TCE and shut down after workers were exposed to TCE concentrations above Federal and State limits.”
Radioactive Contamination of Water at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory This April 2006 report by Committee to Bridge the Gap was presented to the SSFL InterAgency Work Group Community Meeting in Simi Valley. The report zeroes in on radioactive tritium, or “heavy water,” which moves through water faster than any other radionuclide and can’t be filtered out. “Tritium found now at 119,000 pCi/L is SIX times the permissible level and 20,000 times background,” the report says. CBG also shows that gross alpha radiation has impacted 15 groundwater wells, all but one in nuclear-associated Area IV, and that strontium-90 was found leaving Outfall 003 on April 28, 2005 at a concentration over the Maximum Contaminant Level. Outfall 003 drains down into the Brandeis-Bardin Campus at American Jewish University in eastern Simi Valley.
UCLA Rocketdyne Radiation Study – September 1997 $1.6 million UCLA study to determine the health effects on 4,563 Rocketdyne workers. “All available evidence from this study indicates that occupational exposure to ionizing radiation among nuclear workers at Rocketdyne/AI has increased the risk of dying from cancers,” wrote Dr. Hal Morgenstern, director of the UCLA study. “We found the effect of radiation exposure was six to eight times greater in our study than extrapolated from the results of the A-bomb survivors study.”
SSFL Historical Volume – Area 1 Burn Pit 1981 Area I Burn Pit Profile done by SSFL Analytical Chemistry’s N. S. Fujikawa. This 65-page report, among other things, shows exactly where this burn pit was: right next to a drainage channel that leads eventually to the Los Angeles River.
studies showing Impacts of SSFL Contamination
This March 2007 University of Michigan study elevated incidence of cancer in the community surrounding SSFL. It was misconstrued by Boeing, as part of its lawsuit against the State, forcing author Hal Morgenstern to write a letter to Senator Simitian on April 17, 2007 stating, “Boeing’s assertion that we found no increased cancer rates in the communities surrounding SSFL is false. We did, in fact, find increased incidence rates of certain cancers associated with proximity to the facility, the significance of which would require further research.”
Potential for Offsite Exposures Associated with Santa Susana Field Laboratory This February 2006 UCLA research study on potential exposure pathways investigated how contaminants might migrate from the Santa Susana Field laboratory to nearby communities. The study was headed by Dr. Yoram Cohen, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the UCLA Center for Environmental Risk Reduction.
Report of the Advisory Panel Co-chairs summarizing the worker chemical study Dozens of different hazardous chemicals were used at various times at the site, but because of resource limitations and problems obtaining access to data regarding chemical exposures, the researchers focused primarily on hydrazines used at rocket-engine test stands.
Report of the Advisory Panel summarizing the worker radiation study The primary question the study was designed to answer was whether workers at Rocketdyne/AI’s nuclear sites have experienced excess deaths from cancer associated with their work-related exposures to radiation. The answer is yes.
government and corporate Corruption
Joel Grover’s NBC4 Los Angeles Series nine part series uncovers the truth about the SSFL; how residents and children at a popular summer camp are impacted by the SSFL, the corruption of the DTSC, homes being built over contamination and more.
Consumer Watchdog Golden Wasteland in-depth look at the failings of the DTSC.
Video of 2019 Oversight of the Department of Toxic Substances Control Meeting California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld’s talk specifically on the Santa Susana Field Lab and the “disorganized” DTSC.
Research showing correlation between the environment and children’s health
NIH 2015 "Children’s Cancer and Environmental Exposures: Professional Attitudes and Practices"
UC Berkeley News 2016 "With rise of leukemia in children, $6 million grant funds search for causes"
NIEHS and EPA 2017 "Protecting Children's Health Where They Live, Learn, and Play"