give any thought to the hundreds
of moles that speckle his body.
He did not even put a hat on his
bald head.

Other dermatologists may
worry about getting inelanoma
from exposure to ultraviolet rays.
But Ackerman, 67, a renowned
expert in the field and the emer-
itus director of the Ackerman
Academy of Dermatopathology
in New York, said the link be-
tween melanoma and sun expo-
sure was “not proven.”

He has scrutinized, one by
one, the widely held precepts
about melanoma and the sun and
found the evidence wanting. ‘The
field is just replete with non-
sense,” he said.

For example, it is commonly
assumed that painful or blister-
ing sunburns early in iife set the
stage for melanoma later on. But
while some studies show a small
association, Ackerman says, oth-
ers show none. And even studies
that do show an effect disagree
on when the danger period for
sunburns is supposed to be.

Taken as a whoie, Ackerman
argues, the research is inconsis-
tent and fails to make the case.

Common wisdom also has it
that sunscreens protect against
melanoma. But Ackerman points
to a recent editorial in the jour-
nal Archives of Dermatology con-
cluding that there was no evi-
dence to support that idea.

Finally, many people assert
that the more intense a person's
sun exposure, the greater the risk
of melanoma.

For example, Darrell Rigel, a
New York dermatologist, points
out that the incidence of
melanoma increases as distance
to the equator decreases. Rigel,
a past president of the American
Academy of Dermatology and
the lead editor of “Cancer of the
Skin,” a major textbook in the
field. cites this as a compelling

he fiei

reason to conclude that sun ex-
posure causes melanoma.

But it is not compelling to
Ackerman. Epidemiological data
on melanoma, he says, are im-
precise and inaccurate. In search-
ing for the causes of other can-
cers, he argues, epidemioiogical
data have led researchers a:
and by their nature, they cannot
demonstrate cause and effect

Stay out of the sun, Ackerman
advises, but do it to avoid pre-
mature aging of the skin. If you
are very fair, avoiding sunlight
will also help prevent squamous
cell carcinoma, a less dangerous
cancer. But it would be a mistake,
he says, to assume that avoiding
sunlight or using sunscreens will
offer protection from melanoma.

Ackerman has been enam-
ored of skin and its diseases
since his earliest days as a resi-
dent at Columbia. Studying der-
matology, to him, was like tak-
ing courses in art history. “If you
know a certain artist, you can
recognize him again,” he said.
“So it is with lesions in the skin.
A lesion is like a painting or a

Dieca nf enlatenn

He has spent most of his ca-
reer in academia and has pub-
lished 625 research papers. His
list of honors and awards in-
cludes this year’s Master Award,
given to one person a year by the
American Academy of Derma-
tology.

In 1999, he started his own
academy, supported by Ameri-
Path, a company that owns
pathology laboratories. “I had
nothing to sell — I was always in
university life,” Ackerman said.
“If you'll excuse the expression
and not think I’m a tart, they
bought me.

His academy, he says, is now
the world’s largest training cen-
ter for dermatopathology.

Ackerman, who is paid a flat
salary, and his six associates ex-
amine more than 100,000 speci-
mens and have done more than
4,000 consultations each year.
Ackerman continues to teach,
write, ask for data and question
his field’s conventional wisdom.

Challenging the link between
sun and melanoma is part of this
pattern.

Academy of Dermatopathology in New York, is a renowned expert in
he link between melanoma and sun exposure. |

whether the “epidemic” of
melanoma proclaimed by many
dermatologists exists. The defi-
nition of the cancer, he says, has
changed over time, leading doc-
tors to diagnose, remove and
cure cancerous growths that
once would not have been called
melanoma.

“The criteria today, clinically
and histopathologically, are dia-
metrically different from those
30 years ago,” he said. In med-
ical school, he continued, “we
were taught that melanoma is a
big, black, fungating tumor that
kills. Who would have believed
then that you can recognize
melanoma for what it is when it
is small and flat and the size of
the fingernail on your pinky? You
would have said they were in-
sane.”

Anyone who argues that sun
exposure causes melanoma, Ack-
erman says, needs to explain
why blacks and Asians get
melanoma almost exclusively on
skin that is not exposed to sun-
light: the palms, soles, nails and
mucous membranes. Even in
- “=> the mast common

melanoma sites — the leg inj
women, the trunk in men — are
hardly the most sun-exposed
body parts.

It is not a popular argument.
Rigel, reached by telephone in
Hawaii, where he was vacation-
ing, said it was perverse of Ack-
erman to pick the data apart.

Melanoma, Rigel said, can oc- '
cur “where the sun doesn't
shine.” But that is because sun- ;
light suppresses immune celis in |
the skin’s surface that ordinarily +
hold cancer at bay, he said.

He himself stays pale, even in
Hawaii, that land of intense sun-
light.

“I'm a dermatologist,” he ex-
plained.

Ackerman does not buy the
immune-system argument. It is
a hypothesis to support the hy-
pothesis that sun exposure
causes melanoma, he says. But
it is not evidence.

Of course, Ackerman adds, he
could be wrong.

“If the evidence were com-
pelling, I’d be the first to capitu-
late,” he said. “I'd say, ‘I tip my
hat to you. Well done.



THE TIMES

Dermatologist

§8 Doctor routinely
diagnoses cancer but also
enjoys time in the sun

By Gina Kolata
NEW YORK TIMES.

Dr. A. Bernard Ackerman, a
dermatologist, spends much of
his time diagnosing the poten-
tially deadly cancer melanoma
and other skin diseases.

But when he returned from a
recent trip to Israel, he was, well,
deeply tanned.

Burnished brown, in fact.

Ackerman did not use sun-
screen on his trip. He did not
give any thought to the hundreds
of moles that speckle his body.
He did not even put a hat on his
bald head.

Other dermatologists may
worry about getting melanoma
from exposure to ultraviolet rays.
But Ackerman, 67, a renowned
expert in the field and the emer-
itus director of the Ackerman
Academy of Dermatopathology
in New York, said the link be-
tween melanoma and sun expo-
sure was “not proven.”

He has scrutinized, one by
one, the widely held precepts
about melanoma and the sun and
found the evidence wanting. ‘The
field is just replete with non-
sense,” he said.

For example, it is commonly
assumed that painful or blister-
ing sunburns early in life set the
stage for melanoma later on. But
while some studies show a small
association, Ackerman says, oth-
ers show none. And even studies
that do show an effect disagree
on when the danger period for
sunburns is supposed to be.

Taken as a whole, Ackerman
argues, the research is inconsis-
tent and fails to make the case.

Common wisdom also has it
that sunscreens protect against
melanoma. But Ackerman points
to a recent editorial in the jour-
nal Archives of Dermatology con-
cluding that there was no evi-
dence to support that idea.

Finally, many people assert
that the more intense a person's
sun exposure, the greater the risk
of melanoma.

For example, Darrell Rigel, a
New York dermatologist, points
out that the incidence of
melanoma increases as distance

DR. A. BERNARD ACKERMAN, emeritus director of the Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology in New a7
the field of skin cancer and believes that doctors have “not proven” the link between melanoma and sun expc

reason tu conclude that sun ex-
posure causes melanoma.

But it is not compelling to
Ackerman. Epidemiological data
on melanoma, he says, are im-
precise and inaccurate. In search-
ing for the causes of other can-
cers, he argues, epidemiological
data have led researchers astray,
and by their nature, they cannot
demonstrate cause and effect.

Stay out of the sun, Ackerman
advises, but do it to avoid pre-
mature aging of the skin. If you
are very fair, avoiding sunlight
will also help prevent squamous
cell carcinoma, a less dangerous
cancer. But it would be a mistake,
he says, to assume that avoiding
sunlight or using sunscreens will
offer protection from melanoma.

Ackerman has been enam-
ored of skin and its diseases
since his earliest days as a resi-
dent at Columbia. Studying der-
matoloey te him was like take

He has spent most of his ca-
reer in academia and has‘pub-
lished 625 research papers. His
list of honors and awards in-
cludes this year’s Master Award,
given to one person a year by the
American Academy of Derma-
tology.

In 1999, he started his own
academy, supported by Ameri-
Path, a company that owns
pathology laboratories. “I had
nothing to sell — I was always in
university life,” Ackerman said.
“Tf you'll excuse the expression
and not think I’m a tart, they
bought me.”

His academy, he says, is now
the world’s largest training cen-
ter for dermatopathology.

Ackerman, who is paid a flat
salary, and his six associates ex-
amine more than 100,000 speci-
mens and have done more than
4,000 consultations each year
Ackerman continues to teach

whether the “epidemic” of
melanoma proclaimed by many
dermatologists exists. The defi-
nition of the cancer, he says, has
changed over time, leading doc-
tors to diagnose, remove and
cure cancerous growths that
once would not have been called
melanoma.

“The criteria today, clinically
and histopathologically, are dia-
metrically different from those
30 years ago,” he said. In med-
ical school, he continued, “we
were taught that melanoma is a
big, black, fungating tumor that
kills. Who would have believed
then that you can recognize
melanoma for what it is when it
is small and flat and the size of
the fingernail on your pinky? You
would have said they were in-
sane.”

Anyone who argues that sun
exposure causes melanoma, Ack-
says needs ta avntat

mel
won
harc
bod:
It
Rige
Haw
ing,
erm
N
cur
shin
light
the:
hole
a
Haw
ligh

plair

A
im
ahy
pot!
caus


Sept 22, 2005 09-27-05A08:40

Department of Health and Human Services

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Robert A. Taft Laboratories, MS-C34

4676 Columbia Parkway

Cincinnati, OH 54226

RE: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)-Site Profile Complex 321.
My name is. - and I was employed as a’ . Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, CA until .
During my employment I believe I was exposed to many toxic and harmful fluids and
materials.
When I was first assigned to 1, Bld. 321 on swing shift we were involved in
machining tantalum and Tungsten using Tetrachloroethylene (Perk) as a cutting fluid and
cooling agent. This work was done without any vacuum or vapor containment . This was
continued for more than 2 years. Hazard control presence was negligible during this time.
Most of my fellow workers in the shop that did this work were adversely effected.
These Were:

1. : with multiple malignant Melanomas, Basil and Squamous cell
cancers. Many still reoccurring.
- who died of Lung Cancer.
- a who had Pituitary Cancer (blind).

‘who had cancer.
‘a Senior Machinist Cancer-deceased.
. had cancer is deceased.

This was a high incidence of cancer for a small shop.
I was later transferred to the Shop that machined BE, D-38, Thorium, Tantalum,
Tungsten, and Oralloy. After a year I was transferred to the
where we assembled parts for Hydro and Nuclear tests. We were assigned to assist
coordinators for Nuclear Explosive Engineering and also weapon divisions. This was
to assist in the fielding of these tests which included: firestorm series, Halite and one
shot for Los Alamos (Muggans). My Supervisor in Nevada was 7 _» Design
Engineer and . , designer (deceased). I was the machinist available while
assembling these shots on site with our shop in a trailer at the shot site. The capsules
were kept in a temporary enclosure. I supported both L.L.N.L. and Los Alamos
teams. The site was a quarter mile north east from the Sudan Crater which emits a
continuous radiation.

AAAYWN

Sincergly

/


Solvents are missing from LLNL forms:

Acetone

epee gp

Perchloroethlene Perk printed out, see ATSDR report
Trichloroethlene see ATSDR report
MEK methyl ethyl ketenes Ethylene Dichloride

Isopropyl Alcohol = Refers to three Carbon structures that is attached in the

middle — Isopropyl Acid

rh

Ethyl Alcohol 198 Proof

g. Ethanol/grain
h. Numerous others.

These solvents were contaminated with different medals

a.

mmepaos

D38

U-235

Beryllium see ATSDR report

Lead see ATSDR report

Copper see ATSDR report

Tungsten see ATSDR report

Oralloy (HEU/highly enriched uranium) oralloy (uranium highly
enriched in U-235

Thorium= Thorium is used in a wide array of products and processes,
where its special properties make it useful when light or high temperature
are involved. Handling and disposing of Thorium is a challenge, as it is
tadioactive and when it decays, and produces Radon gas (also historically
called Thoron). Th-227 and Th-228 when contained in a device, or a

source for use in a device, in quantities of less than 100 millicuries of alpha
activity (3.12 micrograms Th-227 or 122 micrograms Th-228) per device.

Vinyl chloride+ Polyvinyl chloride = is a human carcinogen; may
effect the central nervous system causing dizziness, head aches,
giddiness, unconsciousness

Carbon Tetrachloride = Hazard to health, can damage lungs, liver,
kidneys and nervous system. Carbon Tetrachloride has been found to
cause cancer in animals. ERA, IARC, HHS has determined that
Caron Tetrachloride may reasonable be anticipated to be a
carcinogen.

Ethanol

Tantalum = Radioactive with a very long half life. At high
temperatures Tantalum becomes more radioactive. Tantalum oxide is
used to make glass with high refraction for camera Jens. In Russia it
showed Radiological signs of Early Pulmonary Fibrosis- 2 cases
Chronic Atrophic Rhinitis. Working of Tantalum metal presents the
hazards of burns.

. Chromium = contaminates work place air and of skin on contact

Chromium (VI) it can damage the nose and cause Cancer. Can cause
skin ulcers world Health Org. (WHO) and DHHS & EPA has
declared that Chromium (VI) is a human carcinogen.

D-38 left in shop, sat next to workers for 2-3 months


Welding rods

TU shop lithium hydride = Health effects: Irritation-eye, nose,
throat, skin, ---Marked (HE14) Lung damage (HE111 CNS effects
(HE7) , Respiratory system, skin, eyes.

q. Tetrachloride

m

<ere

Cadmium in silver solder= Cadmium damages lungs, kidney disease
and may irritate the digestive tract.
Benzyl Chloride= Powerful Lachrymator/hazardous
Graphite dust
Zirconium/Zirealloy
Tritium Tritium Analysis

Tritium is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen (half-life of 12.32
years, decay rate of 5.626 % per year). Tritium is produced naturally
in the upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation. It can replace hydrogen
in H2-gas, forming HT, and in water, forming HTO. The release of
excess tritium into the atmosphere from nuclear weapons tests
conducted between 1952 and 1963