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The Bomb In Our Bodies

Introducing: The Nuclear Cluster @ Hunters Point

Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai
Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai

• • • • • • • • September 25, 2024 • • • • • • • •

The Nuclear Cluster @Hunters Point was unveiled to the San Francisco Health Commission on September 03, 2024.

NC@HP is a cohort of current and childhood residents living within the half-mile perimeter of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS) Federal Superfund who have atomic bomb residues in high concentrations in their body burdens, detected in biomonitoring screenings independently conducted by the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program and James Dahlgren Medical, between January 19, 2021 and July 03, 2022. The Bomb in Our Backyard and Quest to Detect Plutonium.

The NC@HP represents the most specific geospatial mapping of the Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation to date, offering definitive evidence of exposure to ionizing radiation emanating from the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory complex and the radiation-contaminated Parcel E-2 Industrial Landfill.

Radioactivity found at Hunters Point Prompts calls for Cancer Screening:

Caution Sign
Western fence line Parcel E-2 landfill - Fitch Street between Quesada & Revere Photo: KT

The NC@HP offers clear and convincing evidence of human exposure to nuclear fission and decay products. Irrefutable proof that is beyond a reasonable doubt submitted into Federal Deposition exhibits in USA v Tetra Tech EC, Inc., et al. [Case 3:13-cv-03835-JD Filed 01/14/19 Northern District of California]

Caution Sign
Dr. James Dahlgren with Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai Photo: SF Bayview NewspaperArticle

Dr. James Dahlgren(l) is a renowned environmental toxicologist and expert witness for the nation's first and largest toxic tort settlement - Hinckley versus PG&E - aka the "Erin Brokovich Case." Dr. Sumchai (r) founded the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program in 2019 and, in 1997, headed the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Toxic Registry.

Hinkley

"The Hinkley case sparked a trend for PG&E and other large corporations: to hide the facts, to set aside blame, and to sweep their issues under the rug." —Hinkley Groundwater Contamination - How PG&E Avoided Negotiation, Cory Baker JD, California Supreme Court Historical Society—2016 Student Writing Competition

Featured Article by Max Genecov - Science from Hinkley

In 1996, residents of Hinkley, California won a $333 million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco for contaminating the water supply of 650 residents with toxic chromium-6. The settlement was the largest toxic tort class action lawsuit in American history at the time.

quote marks

The Nuclear Cluster originally consisted of fifteen residents and UCSF workers, located within six blocks of the western fence line of the NRDL campus and industrial landfill. All fifteen underwent urinary screenings conducted by HP Biomonitoring between 2000 and 2022, which detected radionuclides of concern documented to be present at HP shipyard.”

Hinkley v PG&E was filed on behalf of Hinkley residents by the Lawfirm of Ed Mary after learning the groundwater had been contaminated from 1952 to 1966 by the cancer-causing heavy metal hexavalent chromium.

As factually depicted in the award-winning 2000 movie Erin Brokovich, PG&E settled after Los Angeles legal clerk Erin Brockovich uncovered evidence that PG&E's San Francisco headquarters was aware of and concealed the human exposures. The breach of ethics questioned when the utility giant became aware of the human exposures caused by chemical contamination of its unlined wastewater ponds remains central to the legal debate.

James Dahlgren Medical is the founder of Pacific Toxicology Laboratories in Los Angeles, serves as Editor of Human Toxic Chemical Exposures and is listed in the JurisPro Expert Witness Directory.

Between June 11, 2022, and July 3, 2022, Dr. Dahlgren financed, designed, and conducted a 24-hour urinary speciated assay capable of detecting products of nuclear fission and decay present in uranium and plutonium bombs. The total cost of the testing program was $60,000. Dr. Dahlgren was reimbursed by the Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation from funds awarded by the Environmental Justice Data Fund in August 2022.

plutonium 238pellet
Plutonium - 238 pellet glowing from its decay heat. Pu-238 is a
radioactive isotope of Plutonium that is a powerful alpha
emitter with a half-life of 87 years.

Pu-238 was the first isotope of Plutonium discovered by Nobel Prize recipients Glen T. Seaborg and associates in December 1940 using the 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.

Pu-238 was first used in nuclear weapons components made at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where it was assigned the highest relative hazard number of all 256 radionuclides in use. Pu-238 was used to power spacecraft technology including Voyager 1 & 2 and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.

Pu-238 was detected in high concentrations in a Hunters Point fence line resident on July 27, 2022, by James Dahlgren Medical and 3TM Consulting, LLC.

The Nuclear Cluster originally consisted of fifteen residents and UCSF workers, located within six blocks of the western fence line of the NRDL campus and industrial landfill. All fifteen underwent urinary screenings conducted by HP Biomonitoring between 2000 and 2022, which detected radionuclides of concern documented to be present at High-pressure neurological syndrom.

Unfortunately, the initial laboratory set detection limits for radioisotopes in urinary assays in concentrations so high that assays conducted by James Dahlgren Medical on four UCSF workers were invalid at a financial loss of $16,000.

Five of the fifteen underwent repeat urinary screening that detected worsening exposures to arsenic and radioactive heavy metals including cesium, uranium, thallium, gadolinium, rubidium and tungsten.

A Hunters Point homeowner living on Kiska Road underwent four separate biomonitoring tests of her urine and hair between March and June of 2022 that documented worsening exposures to arsenic, cesium, thallium and radioactive K-40.

fenced area
Photo taken by the author at the intersection of the HPNS Crisp Road main gate at Griffith Street in Hunters Point on June 05, 2022, captures the unfortified chain metal fence at the entry to the campus of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory and Parcel E-2 Industrial Landfill. Public housing, private homes, a children's playground, two churches and Oakdale Community Center are across the street from this location

The legal significance of the photo is that it documents the state of the fence line during the period of testing for radioisotopes of concern at HPNS.

The Nuclear Cluster @ Hunters Point is a cohort of eleven current and former childhood residents living 100 feet to six blocks from the base who range in age from 15 to 82. Radioactive K-40, a nuclear decay product was detected in all 11 members of the cohort. Pu-244 was detected in 8 of the residents.

Toxic locations

NC@HP detected the following radioisotopes classified as fissile, fissionable and fertile in high concentrations in HP Biomonitoring's toxic exposure screenings and in 24 hour speciated screenings conducted by James Dahlgren Medical: elemental cesium, elemental uranium, K-40, Pu-238, Pu-239, U-233, U-235 and total uranium.

Eight members of NC@HP are female and three are male. Of the eight females, one identifies as nonbinary and another as LGBTQ. African Americans represent 7 members of the cohort while European Americans and a European Foreign National represent three.

A multiracial female of Hispanic ethnicity is one of the most dangerously exposed, with radioactive and cancer-causing chemicals detected in two screenings conducted by HP Biomonitoring and the detection of the the atomic bomb residues U-235 and Pu-235.

She is battling terminal leukemia, COPD, neuromuscular disorders and basal cell, a skin cancer, and lives in senior housing half a mile west of the radiation-contaminated panhandle and metal reef area of the base at the north shore of Yosemite Slough:

cluster map
cluster

Side-by-Side mappings of the Parcel E Shoreline and Western Panhandle from HRA (l) and HP Biomonitoring manual pin geospatial mapping of NC@HP. Note that the detection of radioactive isotopes specific for HPNS is contained within the half-mile perimeter of the base geolocated as GPS coordinates lying east of 3rd Street between Gilman and Innes.

Radionuclides
radionuclides

Side-by-side comparison of the list of 33 Radionuclides of Concern at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard included in the 2004 HRA on the left. On the right is the measly list of 11 radionuclides with clean-up goals set by the Navy as of August 2019. Radioactive K-40, Pu-238, Pu-239, U-233, U-235, U-236 and U-238 are documented as ROC's by the HRA.

Radionuclides of concern listed in both the HRA and the August 08, 2019, EPA Radiological Remedial Goals have been detected in the NC@HP cohort in elevated concentrations in Hunters Point residents living within the half-mile perimeter of the base.

Additionally, HP Biomonitoring has detected elemental barium, bismuth, cobalt, cesium, gadolinium, potassium, strontium and thallium in over 120 screenings and repeat screenings conducted to date.

Marie Harrison Community Foundation, Inc, Founder & Director - Arieann Harrison and students of KIPP College Prep in Hunters Point. [Facebook page]

cluster chart

Additional findings of the NC@HP are summarized as follows:

Toxic removal

1. Radioactive potassium - K-40 - was detected in all 11 current and childhood residents and tested using the 24-hour speciated biomonitoring test conducted by James Dahlgren Medical. Radioactive K-40 is a naturally occurring radioisotope present in atomic bombs with a half-life of 1.2 billion years. K-40 emits gamma radiation - a radiation hazard emitted by the unstable nucleus of an atom during radioactive decay. Gamma rays can penetrate skin and clothing with so much power that lead and concrete are required to stop them.

Manganese-54

2. In 2018 the California Department of Public Health cleared Parcel A of radiation hazards despite the discovery of a gamma emitting Ra-226 deck marker and 110 above background gamma emitters attributed to "naturally occurring radioactive potassium." Of note, the report did not include a spectral analysis to prove the gamma emissions were not from another source like Radium 226 or Manganese-54.
3. Radioactive K-40 was detected in extreme concentrations in seven of eleven residents tested in NC@HP - including a long term resident diagnosed with breast cancer and skin cancer with potassium levels so high on routine blood tests she was warned not to eat bananas by UCSF oncologists. Bananas contain radioactive K-40 and emit naturally occurring radiation called a banana equivalent dose.

survey conclusion

The 2018 report of the California Department of Public Health concludes "Detection of potassium - 40 is not unusual for a radiation scan of this type and is not a health or safety concern for people or the environment." This conclusion is patently false. The total number of gamma-emitting anomalies detected on both Parcel A-1 and A-2 exceeded 200!

According to the Human Health Fact Sheet, "Potassium - 40 can present both an external and an internal health hazard. The strong gamma radiation associated with electron capture decay which occurs 11% of the time makes external exposure to this isotope a concern. While in the body, K-40 poses a health hazard from both the beta particles and gamma rays. The health hazard of K-40 is associated with cell damage caused by the ionizing radiation that results from radioactive decay, with the potential for cancer induction."

Shot Able - Operations Crossroads photo: history.navy.mil. Watch the underground detonation of the 20 Kt Fatman Plutonium-239 bomb on YouTube at: HD 1946 Atomic Bomb test Operation Crossroads Shot Able:

location of ships at drydock
Navy archive photo deleted from the front cover of the 2004 Final HRA (l) depicts Operation Crossroads ships docked at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

The photo includes Dry Dock 2 - where the USS Indianapolis picked up the U-235 enriched components of the Atomic Bomb Little Boy on July 15, 1945, en route to Hiroshima.

Fatman bomb

Operation Crossroads launched a fleet of over 300 target and support ships from HPNS in July of 1946, and over the remainder of the year, an estimated 100 ships exposed to two 20-kiloton Fatman plutonium bombs returned to the base.

4. Five members of the NC@HP have products of nuclear fission detected as proof of human exposure to Uranium - 235 and Plutonium - 239 atomic bomb residues. The NC@HP Nuclear Cohort offers irrefutable evidence of ionizing radiation exposures 100% specific for HPNS. The NC@HP nuclear cohort includes a woman diagnosed with acute leukemia given "weeks to live" with K-40 detected in concentrations 13 times higher than allowable, along with elevated levels of Pu-239/240, Pu-244 and U-235/236.

5. The NC@HP Nuclear Cohort includes a woman and man in a domestic partnership living 100 feet from the unfortified chain metal fence separating the radiation-contaminated Parcel E-2 Industrial landfill from San Francisco city streets. Both have K-40 and the fissile product U-233 detected in high concentrations.

6. The most definitive findings of the Nuclear Cluster are the detection of total uranium in all four members of the same family and the detection of K-40, Pu-244, and extreme concentrations of total uranium, U-233, U-238 by James Dahlgren Medical.

7. A professional woman who grew up on Yosemite Ave at Yosemite Slough Federal Superfund site now lives on the Hunters Point hilltop - five blocks northwest of the base. She has a family history of cancer and has been diagnosed with a brainstem glioma followed by thyroid cancer. K-40, Pu-244, U-238, and total uranium were detected in extreme concentrations.

Dr. Ramona Tascoe - Hunters Point Childhood Resident and HP Biomonitoring Co-Founder & Consulting Physician Receives White House Commendation

Dr. Ramona Tascoe
Ramona Tascoe, MD, accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award and White House commendation alongside Kavon Travis - Digital Marketing Specialist in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 28, 2024, at a gala sponsored by the Presidents Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement. Dr. Tascoe served as the 2019 President of the UCSF Medical Alumni Association and received the UCSF School of Medicine 2018 Alumna of the Year Award.

Dr. Tascoe and Dr. Sumchai founded the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program in 2018, and both are proteges of Dr. Carlton Benjamin Goodlett, PhD, MD.

Tascoe grew up on Revere street close to the shipyard entry. Her father traveled to San Francisco from Louisiana during the "Great Migration" and worked as an HVAC engineer in Building 815 - main headquarters for the NRDL. He died shortly following NRDL closure in 1969 from mesothelioma - a cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

In 2019 Dr. Tascoe co-founded the launch of the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program with support from the UCSF School of Medicine Medical Alumni Association. Ramona Tascoe, MD now serves as consulting physician for the Hunters Point Community Toxic Registry and can be reached at (415) 349-4424.

Please donate to the HP Community Biomonitoring Program HERE

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai is a climate activist living on the Westside.

September 2024

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