AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

COUNTY OF MADISON )

Affidavit of
My name is I was employed at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. (formerly Dow
Chemical) in the Pot Room from 1988 to and from 1994 to

RADIOACTIVE CHIPS

I worked in the Pot Room (magnesium cast floor) and on shift when I was told that
harmless radioactive chips would be melted. I was told these chips would pose no threat to our
health. We were running the billet unit while the radioactive chips were being melted on the slab
unit. Boxes of these chips were dumped on the floor and shoveled into the pot and melted.

was the melter on my crew who was melting the chips. A plastic flag line was hung
between the slab unit and the billet unit. We were told to stay away or on our side of the line if
we were not involved with melting the chips. People who were on the chip-melting sidé had to
wear dosimeter or film badges to detect exposure to radiation or levels of exposure to radiation.
I know of at least four people who had the badges that worked on my shift. They were one mag
melter, one crew leader, one supervisor and one lab worker. I specifically remember
being the melter and the lab girl’s first name was I don’t remember who the crew leader or
supervisor was. These two units were only 20 to 30 feet apart. The flag line was a big joke.
among the crews in the Pot Room because the smoke and fumes and ashes from the melting of
the chips would bellow out of the pot and go anywhere it wanted. It didn’t stop at or respect any
flag line. Therefore, everyone in the Pot Room was. breathing the smoke and fumes. After the
chips were melted, the metal was pumped into half round sludge Pots and a metal band was put
into the metal to be able to identify the metal that had been melted. ‘These half round castings of
metal were taken out of the Pot Room. I don’t know what happened to them. The sludge from
the pots were put into 55-gallon barrels with bolt and nut type fastening lids, put on pallets after
cooling, and then taken away. told me while we were still working at SCI, that he
had tried for many years to get the results of the film badges, but was never told anything. We
had been told in the beginning that they were sent to Chicago to be analyzed. No kind of special
equipment was issued during the melting of these chips. In June or July of 2006, 1 spoke with

and he told me that he and had welded the lids on the barrels before our
employment there ended. _ died 2006 of multiple cancers. -
EXPLOSION CONTAMINATION

While I worked in the Pot Room (magnesium cast floor), I was in three explosions and
burned ail three times. The first time I was in the hospital for one week and had to have surgery
to debreed and clean the burns. The second time I was hospitalized for three to four days and

DOW Affidavit: Page 1 of 4




amongst the old timer’s legends. Because all conversations were passed as legend and
folklore in addition to the laugh it off attitude everyone had, there was a false sense of
security being manipulated relevant to the Thorium and other questionable substances in
the facility. I will say that I have first hand seen items that were made of Thorium and
even confirmed by supervisors. Some of these items were lunchboxes, toolboxes, thin
plates to cover picnic tables to give them a solid surface, full sized utility carts, various
pieces from old press runs that workers tucked away as souvenirs, full sized slabs, and
even pieces hidden in abandoned lockers are some I recall. For a metal that I was lead to
believe was accounted for, there was at one time workers taking the Thorium plating and
cutting it and welding it to make these items. One utility cart in particular was in
extrusion; it was the size of a small hotdog type cart and was even being used by
maintenance employees. Before a contractor came in to do a clean up, it was allegedly
confiscated and properly disposed of by this contractor. A couple years later I discovered
that this cart made of Thorium was the same utility cart I was using as a janitor in the
rolling mill.

Experiences in the Rolling Mill

I was placed in the rolling mil! due to multiple compounding medical restriction due to
my degenerative health. The only job I could go to with my plant seniority was the
janitor’s position in the rolling mill. The rolling mill was full of old timers that had more
knowledge of history than anywhere I had been in the facility. I took notice that more
than half of the men in that department and ones that had been in that department that
went to other jobs in the facility had adopted children. After I came to know these men
that they could not have children which aroused my suspicions of a common link. I also
realized that there was a history of prior workers and a few recent ones that had
committed suicide and had been plagued with mental illness. [ thought that it was
relevant to stresses of shift work and hard living. I noticed that more than half of the men
young and old had significant health problems and the workers that had been there for
more than 20 years had spouses and children with severe health ailments too. At the time
I considered each person’s case to be isolated and not relevant to the factory. Hind sight
is 20/20, I now understand that there is a common denominator and that is the factory.
The company’s unwritten policy of a need to know basis was very apparent as well as the
out of sight out of mind attitude. I as a janitor had unrestricted access to the entire
department other than active work stations. All cubby holes, locker rooms, offices,
abandoned rooms, storage rooms, etc. I could do my job and observe at the same time. I
had access and expectations to clean long forgotten areas including abandoned offices.
There were solid Thorium slabs tucked away in the rolling mill. I was told the slabs were
Thorium by my co-workers, I asked foremen about it, they told me to simply not touch
the slabs, but they pose no danger being nearby. These slabs got moved around every so
often because they were allegedly in the way from time to time. Several times, these
Thorium slabs were set right outside of my original janitor’s supply room. From time to
time I would look for things to clean so I could stay busy. I had taken it upon myself to
clean out the abandoned lockers from the men’s locker room/shower room in the rolling
mill on the north end. In this locker room I found all sorts of artifacts. I also found old
samples of metal. I was instructed to never dispose of metal in the trash, but to figure if it


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON _ )
Affidavit of

My name is I worked at Dow Chemical from 1968 to We worked with
thorium as long as I worked in the Mill. We rolled it, cut it, and processed it. In shipping wé
sent it to different customers. The one we were talking about was Rocky Flats. We also
received metal back 1 also worked in Casting at both ends. Also I worked all over the plant
when I was in Maintenance.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: 2-35-07 _

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before me this 4 1 day 2007

OFFICIAL SEAL
noonna JEREM'

TARY PUBLIC, STATE OF IL
MY COMMISSION EXPIRES ON
CAAA FEBRUARY 28, 2010

SON RRA AAA

DOW Affidavit: Page t of I


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Affidavit of
My name is . I worked at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. from "1987
to. I started in the Casting department. I worked in the Leaching department from

1988 to 1989. I heard through other employees that thorium was mixed in with the sludge cakes
that we processed in the Leaching department. Nobody in management seemed concerned about
out contact with anything we processed in the Leaching department. I remember thorium and:
beryllium barrels and other sludge being stacked eight feel high in an area bigger than a football
field in the Casting department.

I remember around 1989-1990, approximately 30 to 40 thorium slabs were stored in the Rolling
Mill department for a long period of time; well before I began working at SCI.

I started working in the Extrusion department in 1990 on light presses No. 7 and No. 9. We ran
both aluminum and magnesium alloys on both presses. In approximately 1992, Martin Marietta
rented No. 7 press for approximately one week. I remember this job because it was ran much
different than any other job. Carbon blocks were inserted behind the billets and it was an
extremely hard alloy to run. This was a special job which we never ran for any other customer
other than Martin-Marietta Metals. I believe this alloy to be Thorium 232 because of documents
T have recently reviewed. .

I have had many respitory problems since and during my employment at Spectrulite Consortium
Inc.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: Kel. 200

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before me this day of F-LbUi WAdg. 2007
Nitoh, Uh. evga

Notaty Public “OFFICIAL SEALTM

DEBORAH A. HALDEMAN
NOTARY PUBLIC—STATE OF ILLINOIS
Z MY COMMISSION EXPIRES AUG. 1, 2009

esccccsssesseseretetneuiuiuuiuiasniwh

AAW
Aanaavnnnrensd

DOW Affidavit: Page 1 of t


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON )
Affidavit of ”

My name is‘ I worked at Spectrulite from September, 1988- _In
the years at Spectrulite, I worked six months in the Casting/Leaching department. It was
common knowledge to all of us that in this department they reclaimed the toxic element
beryllium. To re-claim this material, we were told to put three full buckets of sludge and one
that contained beryllium into the machine. The good metal was recovered and sent back to the
Pot Room. The leftover sludge was dumped down the sewer! Some sludge cakes were not re-
melted, but instead loaded on a train to send to another state. Other common knowledge was
that the hazardous element beryllium was stored in the Pot Room for alloying pots.

In Extrusion for a week, we ran a complete workcycle of thorium for Martin-Marietta; a month.
later we ran it again. When these billets arrived to us they were wrapped wp as if they wanted
no one to know about them except them. When the billets were taken out, one end of the billet
would be painted with a Teflon coating. The material the billets were made of ‘was so hard
and heavy, it needed to be loaded by a forklift. To heat the billets, the oven had to be at least
1,000 degrees. We had to use a carbon block in between ‘the billets and the dummy block.’
The reason being the metal was too hard to push through the press. With this metal being this
hard, the pumps for the press had to run on full stroke. This was the only way we could get
the metal to break down so that we could-extrude it. When ‘the extrusion was finished, the
carbon block disintegrated; before the metal would clear the die. ‘When the extrusion was
finished, the carbon had to be cleaned from the press in order to run another billet. When
finished with the complete run, all metal scrap containers that billets came in, bands and purge
billets (3-4) were all loaded up and sent with the extrusion order, While running this

" extrusion, it must be attended to at all times; leaving us'no time to'leave the press to eat lunch.
Our lunch was eaten on the job site. :

In 1992, there was a hazardous clean up in Extrusion. We were not told what the clean up was
for, nor did they shut the department down. Professional hazardous crew came in looking like
men from Mars (makes oné wonder). But, we didn’t have suits or ventilators.as they had.

My biggest concern is that I worked on and around No. 7 press (which extruded the metal) for
ten years. This material has all been found now with high levels of uranium... When it would
rain, everything would be covered in dust from the beams and we were riever advised that this
could be or was uranium dust, At times the dust from the Magnesium department would be.so
heavy and smoky, especially on rainy days, it was difficult to breathe or to see 40 feet away.
One building would be the size of an oil tanker, four stories tall., Entire plant was 35 acres
under the roof. 7

DOW Affidavit: _ Page t of 2




Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: A-as - oF)

Dated: z -0§ -O fi

Dated: -OS ~O

"OFFICIAL SEAL"

Gary L. Fletcher
Notary Public, State of Itlinois
My Commission Exp. 03/17/2007



water fountains in the plant. had even told me personally that she brought
her own bottled water because she said the water tasted like fish and she was not going to
take any chances with a recent kidney transplant.. This statement was completely out of
character for this lady to say in respect to her company relevance. was also one of a
handful of Diabetics that worked at the facility that had severe near death complications
while employed at the facility that were dismissed as typical symptoms that came with the
territory of Diabetes. I do know of several individuals that were diagnosed with Diabetes
within a years’ time collectively. I would also like to state if I haven’t yet, that I am a
Diabetic and have been since age 2, but my symptoms went extreme after I started
working for Spectrulite.

Areas Where Ammonia Odors Were

There was an area located outdoors from the interior of the plant and between casting
and central shops on the south end of the facility. This area was quite visible from
College Street and the genera! public. There was another area similar to this outside of
the pot room between casting and extrusion on the northern part of the facility, but this
part was not visible to the general public. The materials that were placed in these areas
were left over waste from the pot room’s magnesium pots. Some of these large pieces of
waste were as large as an economy car; they were a perfect cast from the magnesium
melting pots. These solid masses of waste would sit for several days to cool off for
further disposal. The waste would smolder and smoke and let off clouds of a white
ammonia odor. The ammonia type of odor was overwhelming more than often. The
smell would be so strong that workers could not walk 100 feet or more near the stuff
without becoming overtaken by the fumes. Many times upon entering and leaving work,
the smell from this waste was very much present blocks away from the property. On
humid nights the smell and smoke was amplified. There was evidence of left over
magnesium left in the molten hot solid waste by magnesium’s trademark blinding white
burn. I and others had become very ill with nausea and burning eyes from walking the
main sidewalk in and out of the plant when this waste material was present. Typically I
have seen half a dozen or so of these huge waste masses in the front or south part of the
facility and a much larger pile of the same waste material stored in-between casting and
extrusion in the northern part of the facility. This material was so hot that it literally
cooked the ground solid better than a concrete company could ever create.

Hydrochloric Acid Tank

In extrusion, there was a work station/area referred to as die assembly. This work
station was located north, caddy comer from the extrusion foreman’s office. Die
assembly was mainly responsible for assembling dies for all of the presses in extrusion,
and getting them to the presses’ ovens and removing used dies from completed press
runs. All presses used dies to get the specific shape for each job run. The assembled die
could be best explained like the Play-Dough fun factory. The Play-Dough would be the
metal that casting had sent for the press to extrude. The die would be the little cut out
shape in the Play-Dough fun factory to squeeze the material thru. Once the material
would be squeezed thru, it would be a long, linear piece of metal with a shape noticeable
from viewing it down the length of the extrusion. A pencil is a good shape to explain this


had surgery for debreeding and cleaning the burns. The third explosion, I'was released same day
after my eyes were flushed and my burns were cleaned and: bandaged. In explosions, metal and
contaminated debris gets airborne and forced into every nook and cranny, whether it be a person
. or the work area. Over the years, particles of all matter are dispersed about, on overhead beams,
on walls, and on all moving and non moving parts, just as dust would collect around your homes.
The second explosion I was in, 1 was about 12 to 15 feet away. Try to imagine feeling what I
felt. and I both knew an explosion might and probably would occur because’
had seen molten magnesium run out from under the mold into the water sprays that helped cool
the cast magnesium slab. and I were running as fast and hard as possible when the
explosion occurred. I felt myself completely wrapped by intense heat and fire. I remember
seeing debris flying past me. So this kind of concussion would move particles that gathered over
the years, whether the particles were uranium, thorium or beryllium and suspend them in the air
to resettle on new surfaces, on the employees, and to be breathed. Over al! the years, the Pot
Room ran production and never had a cleanup to my knowledge. What harmful particles such as
Thorium 230, Beryllium, Manganese, Zinc, and other alloying substances did we ingest, inhale
or have embedded in us due to explosions or by other means of contact? We were all exposed to
materials in varying degrees, but still exposed none the less. I knew we were subject to the job
dangers, but we were not made aware of the risks we were exposed to by particles at a subatomic
level.

LEACHING PROCESS

I worked in the leaching area, also known as sludge recovery for approximately two
weeks. I was told by the supervisor, that the purpose of leaching was to reclaim
magnesium products from the sludge because we were losing too much of a valuable product. 1.
was told that this sludge was being shipped by railcar to a company in California that was
processing it by use of the ocean or seawater. to reclaim the magnesium. The reclaimed
magnesium would then be sold back to our facility to be remelted and cast into ingots. The
leaching process area was relatively new at SCI (Spectrulite Consortium Inc) because the
company didn’t want to ship as much of the sludge off to be processed: To the best of my
memory, four or five Bobcat bucket loads of the sludge would be dropped into a vat or reservoir
which contained an Epsom salt solution. The Epsom salt solution would separate the magnesium
from the waste material. The magnesium would then be allowed-to dry and be placed into metal
tubs or boxes. I remember having melted some of this material on the magnesium slab unit in
the Pot Room. We usually. pumped this particular’ metal into sludge pans and we would put, a
steel strapping band half in and half out of the pan so that we could identify this particular metal.
These solid pieces of cooled magnesium of mixed and: unknown alloys would weigh up to
approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Ibs. These were usually marked as a mixed alloy. After this point,
only the spec lab could tell us what was in this magnesium after it was removed and samples
were taken.

After the magnesium: was recovered, the liquid slurry would be pumped to another
processing unit where the water and its containers were separated. Then a caked on mud
consistency material would be scraped from between heavy rubber type mats which were
hanging in a trough type container and would be disposed. I don’t know what happened.to this
material. There were different kinds and shapes and storage areas of magnesium sludge.

DOW Affidavit: Page 2 of 4


- In July, 2000, I was one of the few employees who witnessed the entire clean up process by
FRUSAP and Army Corp. of Engineers of the uranium clean up. The entire factory was laid
off that week during the clean up. .

In January, 2002, | started getting ill. I had a rash, arthritis, and-it slowing got worse. The
company knew of my condition because they paid my. insurance bill. In 2002, the
company got rid of me and all other union employees. The cornpany re-opened the factory”
under a new name and hired new employees.

I have had lung problems since 2000. I was treated by doctors, but they could. not find a
cause. I never smoked in my whole life. 1 was never sick or ill in my entire life. But, now I
‘can barely use my hands or walk or stand for long periods of time. I’m covered with a painful
skin rash and have arthritis in almost every joint in my body. Pm‘ on social security disability

for the rest of my life. Tamonly _ years old. :

.My wife has.many illnesses that I believe were caused by secondary contamination; along -
with my childrén and grandchildren.. All of my.grandchildren are:dead, but one, My first’

. granddaughter was born with a birth defect: She had to breathe through a.. tube in.her neck

since birth until she died in © years old. The second grandson spent the first four

‘ ‘months in an. incubator, and has Tespitory problems still. - _my third

grandchild died inside the womb at six months pregnancy.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: A- aX -O7

2007

3

AAeeanrorinnennd

SUZANNE W. GALLAH
NOTARY, FBLC STATE OF OF fia

NW COUN:
g 2 MY COMMISSION EXPIR oT. 10, 2009 3

Geccerecorasesisvecssasess eeecenenssersite «

AAA nanny

DOW Affidavit: Page 2 of 2


was very common for us to wipe out the inside of the receptacles with gloved hands to remove
any debris or oxides before preheating them. Debris and oxides would hold:moisture. When
moisture and molten magnesium and or magnesium sludge would come into contact, it would
create an atmosphere for explosions. The reason I know about thorium being ran is this.

who was always my crew leader in the Pot Room, had told me about it being run. He had
also told me that the Pot Room had never had any kind of clean up in his years of employment
and the Pot Room is where he had always worked. He was a very smart crew leader and he
taught the people who worked under him very much. I always listened to the older Pot Room

employees because of their knowledge and experience. was a inetal caster that I
worked with and he had said the same thing about. thorium runs that '_ had said.
When I bid into another department, 1 worked with and he said the exact same thing

about the thorium runs and the Pot Room experiences.
BERYLLIUM

[hired into the Pot Room as melter. I alloyed a magnesium alloy known as AZ-21, which.”
was alloyed with aluminunyberyllium bars. The bars were in the shape of small ingots and
weighed five pounds each. They were brought onto the mag floor by the crew leaders in 55
gallon sealed barrels. The barrels had to be opened by taking off a metal lid which was secured .
by a threaded bolt and nut. Once opened, the five-pound bars were inside a heavy gauge plastic
bag. We would add the proper amounts of this aluminum/beryillium alloy according to what the
spec lab would require. We would add the beryllium to the molten magnesium in two ways:
One way was to put it in an alloying basket or in the ladle of the sludger, then lower it.into the
molten magnesium. At this time, there is a stirrer rotating like a mixer to get.the alloy mixed
into a molten state. While this.is going on, the melters were adding flux to refine the alloy, all
the while, the melters were standing next to this and breathing the smoke and fumes without any.
form of protection. We were fitted for respirators at one time, but this. was ‘totally ineffective
because if you wore the respirator, your safety glasses would fog up while exhaling through the
respirator and you would be unable to see. These respiiators also got in the way of your face
shield. The beryllium bars were also taken down to the sub basement and broken into smaller
pieces for alloying. This was usually done by the crew leader.’ The device they. used to break the
beryllium bars was used to break test slices of magnesium billets for inspection. :

The above accounts are to the best of my memory, knowledge and recoilection.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: O2~- $ ~07

‘SUBSCRIBED AND SWO 2007

;

Saeed

Notary Public

y
i SUZANNE W. CALLAHAN
{NOTARY PUBLIC STATE OF ILLINOIS
H {ADISON COUNTY, IL

§ MY COMMISSION EXPIRES OCT. 10, 2009

Seveesererererttscsenacnancnennuitiite

DOW Affidavit: Page 4 of 4


also. A pencil is solid, straight, and linear. Depending on the pencil, if one was to look at
it from the end and down the length, they may notice it to be round or hexagon. This is
my attempt to explain the extrusion process as simply as possible and the use of dies in
the presses. The company very rarely threw any dies out for scrap. The dies were heavy
steel to resist heat and wear and tear. There were dies, holing rings, backers, and bolsters
from back in the days when the facility first opened. Some dies were as small as 6 inches
in diameter, and some were as larger than 30 inches in diameter. When a die came back
from being used on the press, it was die assembly’s job to clean any left over metal from
the dies or tooling. Some jobs came back with little or no metal from the extruded job.
Very often dies and tooling were returned back to die assembly with half a billet hanging

* out of the die from the job that the presses were using them for. The handed down way of
ridding traces and large amounts of extruded metal from these dies was to let them cool
and submerge them in the caustic tank or the hydrochloric acid tank. Caustic had zero
effect on magnesium but it had a crippling effect on aluminum. Hydrochloric acid would
destroy magnesium.and would remove trace amounts of aluminum if the tooling would fit
into the hydrochloric acid tank. The hydrochloric acid tank was located at-the die
assembly work station. It was a tank similar to a wash basin that sat off the floor. The
tank was nearly two foot deep and three to four feet squared. The tank was open topped
with no adequate ventilation. When metal was submerged into this tank, gases and
clouds would appear. A strong sulfuric odor would be present. Workers including
myself had gotten headaches and nose bleeds as well as nausea from these fumes.

Several times the fumes got so overwhelming the extrusion foreman’s office had to be
vacated. The foreman’s office was between 100 and 150 feet from this tank. The
foreman’s office had doors and was not fully exposed to the plant environment. A note to
this is that unlike the caustic tank, the hydrochloric tank did all of this at room
temperature. Hydrochloric acid would weaken in strength as it was used. We had no
accurate means of monitoring the acid’s potency, just eyeballed it on how fast the acid
could eat away the metal we were intending on cleaning from dies and tooling. When
acid was considered to be too weak to keep, it had to be disposed of. Do not let this
statement sound reassuring that the acid no longer worked, it still worked, just not as
efficiently for time. Very rarely was it in my character to contest or question tasks handed
to me by authority figures. I was instructed to dispose of used hydrochloric acid into the
public sewer system. There was a gray PVC pipe added to the bottom of the hydrochloric
tank that was controlled by a ball cock valve. The pipe was aimed over the top of a floor
drain that went to the public sewer system. I was told that if I thought the practice was
immoral to turn on the garden hose and run it with the draining tank to dilute the used
acid further. The EPA was given an anonymous call about this integral with the call
about the slurry pit. This is also the tank that was used to clean the smaller dies from the
caustic house that I was told to clean that were allegedly going to be shipped out to be
scrapped.

Thorium Toolboxes

There were many folklore type of stories about Thorium and other questionable metals
in the facility told by old timers, and that were denied by any official that had a
responsibility to face such statements. Thorium was one of the common told stories



AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

COUNTY OF MADISON _)

Affidavit of

My name is I worked at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. from 1989- In
1989, I was hired in Leaching process. I removed magnesium waste from old barrels with no
labels and ran the waste through a press. In 1989, I bid on a job in Magnesium. | I started as a
melter of alloy pots with magnesium, aluminum, zinc, manganese, zirconium (beryllium front
pots only) 230,234 flux. I also used scrap and waste from old, unmarked barrels in the
Casting department and waste from Leaching.

In 1992, I did a radiation clean up in the Casting department. We took very old, unmarked
barrels of magnesium scrap or waste from the Casting department warehouse and melted it in
back pots. We put the waste or sludge in barrels and welded them closed. We stored the
barrels in back of the Casting department on the side of the building. The clean up was
monitored by Spec Lab. We wore radiation badges during ent entire shift. We would blow
the unit with air lances. All of our clothés were put in clear trash bags: I asked a Spec Lab
person named if this was safe and she told me that there would be more
radiation out of a microwave. We tried it with a Geiger counter. The Geiger counter barely
moved by the microwave, but by the barrels, the Geiger counter pegged out:

After the clean up, I was laid off for six weeks. When I came back to work I asked for the
results of badges. My first midnight shift there was a safety meeting with no results of the
badges. I never saw the the Spec Lab person, _ again.

I worked on the Magnesium floor for five years. Later on I bid on a job in the Aluminum unit
where I worked for three:years. I was never told of my badge results.

I next bid on a job in the Maintenance department where I worked for five years. I worked in
the entire plant. I cleaned and painted all casting equipment. The paint was yellow and green
and cost $29.00 a gallon.

I think it was the summer of 2000 when I worked in the Extrusion department where I rebuilt
the 7 press and cleaned and painted it. For several weeks I cleaned all overhead cranes on
Saturday overtime before Spring of 2000; before FRUSAP and Army Corp. of Engineers did
their clean up.

DOW Affidavit: Page 1 of 2


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Thorium Metal Was Processed at the Madison Plant After 1960

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1964 to

I rotated through other areas, including the rolling mill, but worked primarily as a
crane operator in extrusion. I know that Thorium metal was being processed in extrusion
throughout the years I was employed at the Madison plant.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1953 to

I worked in the casting department. Thorium metal was being cast at the plant from
the early 1960's to the mid 1980’s, To my knowledge, all of the thorium metal processed
during this period was for the government. We would load the slabs into a scalping
machine that would shave the sides of the slabs before they were sent to the rolling mill.
The scalping machine generated a lot of dust.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1955 to

I worked as a mag melter in the casting department. Thorium metal was being cast
at the plant periodically the entire time I was employed at the plant. I personally handled
the thorium metal that was added to the pots. Smelting generated a lot of fumes. Thorium
metal as stored in the warehouse during this period. I did not work in Shipping, but I
heard rumors that the metal was being shipped to Rocky Flats, CO. I serviced the face
scalpers. We also used edge scalpers. Scalping was a very dusty process.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1953 to

I worked in the rolling mill as an inspector. Thorium ran periodically through the
rolling mill at the Madison plant during this entire period. I was all over the department,
from Shipping to Number 1 Miil. I saw sales orders showing that the metal was being
shipped to Rocky Flats. I would sand the thorium sheets by hand. None of the men in the
rolling mill wore respirators.

My name is 1 was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1959 to

I worked in shipping and extrusion as a packer. As a packer I packed everything off
of the presses for shipment to customers. In 1957, 1 was working on the billet press and
saw 2 skids of metal w/ red tags set next to the Number 9 Press, We were told not to come
within 5 feet of this metal. Thorium was being extruded from at least 1975 through the
late 1980’s. I was told that the metal was being shipped to Rocky Flats.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1961 to
I worked in the maintenance department and so worked throughout the entire plant
every day. I know that thorium metal was run through casting, extrusion and the rolling


took it upon themselves to request dust masks. And as stated, the workers did complain
of symptoms of headaches, nosebleeds, and difficulty breathing. The dust and debris was
also placed in with the regular garbage for disposal.

Slurry Pit
There was a station that was outdoors, between the rolling mill, and extrusion at the

north end of the facility. My experience here is miniscule but has potential significance.
I was told that the slurry pit was designed to break down used caustic, back into parts
much safer for disposal rather than the full strength waste caustic solution. It appeared to
me that there were several fish hatchery like tanks separate from each other but yet
connected by some form of contro]. It appeared there was an out house like building that
had a ladder that went to a lower level of this station. The simple appearance of this
station looked a lot more technical once you looked inside this out house like structure
that was central and incorporated to this slurry pit. It has multiple electrical control
panels, gauges, conduit, pipes, pumps, charts, etc. It appeared to have no power or
functional mechanical means anymore. The station was extremely damaged due to
exposure to the elements and the excessive corrosion of the caustic it was supposed to
have been designed to break down. The lower end of the outhouse like building was full
to ground leve) of liquid and caustic as well. The tanks were damaged to the point that
they leaked onto the ground and into the sewer system. and I took a plastic tank
full of used caustic to this slurry pit and were instructed to empty the used caustic into the
north most tank. When we did, it all went into the tank and leaked right back to the
ground. We advised management of this and they did not seem to be concerned. We
were then told to just go ahead and dispose of it into the sewer system with running water
to help dilute the solution. We questioned this task and were told that it was acceptable
and safe and we were even told that it was the way that it has been done in the past. This
incident as well as another similar incident was reported anonymously to the EPA. A
reminder is that, this caustic was soaking into the ground, and all it needs to recharge is
water and can charge even more with heat, Each time it rains it recharges, and on hot
summer days it charges.

Canteen

The canteen was an area central to the production departments and was used
universally for breaks and meal times. Surrounding the canteen were several picnic type
of areas that were completely exposed to the plant with no partitions or walls. The
canteen itself was constructed as an add-a-room. The canteen contained several vending
‘machines in addition to open cup soda and coffee machines. The entry ways were made
from a thin metal type of door in which there were two; one located on the south wall of
this room, and the other on the east wall of this room. The walls were made in a modular
fashion that could easily be penetrated with a kick and the east wall contained large
plastic- glass windows. There was a water fountain within this room which had to be
wiped down and the water had to be run for a short time before one could drink from it
due to the accumulation of the dust and oil that was present in the environment and air.
The canteen had no air filtering or purification system. There was a window type of air
conditioning unit for the summer months, and there was a heater for the winter months.


Caustic House/ Room/Building
In the extrusion department, there was an add-on type building that was referred to as

the “caustic house”. This small building was located near the south end of the sonic tank
and was accessed thru a garage door from the main extrusion building and also from the
exterior by another garage door. There are different types of corrosive substances that
were used to clean manufactured alloys from steel tooling. Caustic was mistaken by
many at the plant as an acid because they knew no better, in fact, caustic is the opposite of
an acid, it is a base. The caustic that was used in this particular building was a white
powder and had a salt effect. It left the air with a dry feeling like salt and even left a
crystal like substance like salt. If the dry powder was touched by bare skin, it would
‘make a severe rash and or chemical type bun. Caustic becomes very corrosive when it
becomes wet. Wet caustic can be a lot more efficient when it is introduced to the element
of-heat. Knowing these two principles, it will be more understandable to grasp the idea
and the conditions of the caustic house. The caustic tank was a metal panel type unit that
was “T” shaped if one was to look at it from a bird’s eye view. The tank was rather large
and used an air lance to agitate the caustic solution. If the solution was not agitated, it
would evaporate leaving behind a block of the caustic substance similar to the effect as if
one was to dry out a pool of salt water. There was also a heating unit that was
incorporated with the caustic tank. The hotter the solution, the more aggressive the
caustic was. Caustic was best used to dissolve very large quantities of aluminum.
Tooling from the presses was placed in this tank to eat away processed alloys from events
such as flashes and left over pieces left of extrusion that were left from the prior job, but
the steel tooling was virtually unaffected by the solution. Due to the fact that caustic gets
really active when it is wet and the fact there was a heating apparatus in addition to the
caustic tank having boiling hot solution with the air lance to agitate the solution, the air
condition in the caustic room was hot and humid. If one was to enter this room with
humid and warm air, the individual would become severely irritated due to the corrosive
particles in the air. The individual’s eyes would start to bum and at bare minimum feel as
if they had salt or sand in them. The individual’s throat would become irritated and even
their sinuses would as well. Many times people would get nose bleeds from this room.
‘There was an eyewash station in this building, and it was splashing distance from the
caustic tank, plus the common sense idea that water makes caustic more corrosive, but
there was one there nonetheless. This eyewash station was covered in the caustic residue.
There was also a phone in the caustic house that was directly tied in to the guard shack in
case of emergency. A few times some of us tried it out and discovered it was not alive
connection, There was a ventilation fan that drew air from the caustic house out side and
into a stainless steel duct. The duct went along the main building of extrusion and then
made its way upward to clear the top of the extrusion building and into the open air. The
caustic that was no longer usable due to contamination or other reason undisclosed by
management was supposed to be taken to the slurry pit. In my time there, the slurry pit
was inoperable as explained later on in my statement. The caustic tank was falling apart
and had many leaks in it. When it was running, it put caustic in the open air. There were
white crusty and white flaky deposits everywhere in the caustic house. The deposits
would be on the walls, floor, ceiling, switches, safety stations, crane, straps, chains, and
crates, literally everything. Many of the times I went into the caustic house, my skin


Further, Affiant sayeth not.
Dated: 2- 3 - OT

Dated: 52-04 - O

Dated: pL - OS -O

"GFFICIAL SEAL"
Gary L. Fletcher
Notary Public, State of Ittinois

My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007
Rannnnnnnnnrrnsne nnn



AFFIDAVIT

STATE OF ILLINOIS )
)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Thorium Metal Was Processed at the Madison Plant After 1960

My name is I was-employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1962 to

in the maintenance department and so worked throughout the entire plant. I saw
sheet metal being sanded in the rolling mill and billets being scalped in the casting
department. I was.told that some of the metal that was processed at the plant during my
years of employment was thorium for the government and to stay away from it. .

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1961 to

I started out in the rolling mill but also worked in the casting and extrusion
departments. Thorium was run at the plant from 1957 to 1999. I performed hand sanding
and salvaging work in the rolling mill and saw sheets identifying some of the material as
thorium and instructing us to wear paper dust masks.

My name is — I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1955 to

1 held many positions during those years, including laborer, casting equipment
repairman in the casting department and as maintenance helper, brickworker and
sandblaster throughout the plant. I saw slabs being scalped in the casting department and
sheet being sanded in the rolling mill. I know that thorium was stored in drums in an
annex to the Pot Room, which was adjacent to the Number 4 Building.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1953 to
I worked primarily as an inspector: in the rolling mill from 1950 to 1966 and in
extrusion from 1966 until HK 31 and HM 21 were run periodically from the late

_ 1950’s through the mid-to-late 1960’s. I saw slabs being scalped in casting and sanding
being done on sheets in the rolling mill.


Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: A-S -¢ 7 : ,

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before nie this 5 day of “Febyisa rt 4 , 2007

pot6

Notary Public | “OFFICIAL SEAL"
. Kristi Redman

Notary Public, State of illinois
My Commission Exp. 06/17/2009-

DOW Affidavit; Page 2 of 2


Further, Affiant sayeth not.

-

Dated: 2-05 -2'7}
-
Dated: 2-04 -o! }

_ . .
Dated: 52 ~O4-oO 7

Dated: 2-06-07]

“OFFICIAL SEAL"
Gary L. Fletcher
Notacy Public, State of Lilinois
My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007



Also, we ran experimental metal for FMC and Allied Signal back in 1993. It was magnesium

far as we knew.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.
Dated: 2-2-2007

DOW Affidavit:

Page 2 of 2

"OFFICIAL SEAL"
Gary L. Fletcher *
Notary Public, State of Illinois

My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007
ween f

2007:


aXe ECEIVE

1 APR 17 2007
SimmonsCooper uc

From the desk of Attorneys at Law

April 16, 2007

Mr. Larry Elliott, Director

Office of Compensation Analysis & Support
MS C-46

4676 Columbia Parkway

Cincinnati, OH 45226-1922

Dear Mr. Elliott:

Enclosed are hard copies and a CD of affidavits of former DOW Madison employees regarding
thorium.

Sincerely,

Enclosures

Moin Office wwwsimmonscoopercom Chicago Office Texas Office
Hy Berstie Blvd. ny a ea 209 South LoSolle St. 312.759.7500 103 ay jomere 966. ot a
521 618. Suite 805 312.759.7516 Fox PO. Box 940.5;
ial Aion, 1.62024 618: ay ast Fox Chicago, Ik. 60604 Archer an it 76351 940: on ‘set Fox


TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
RE: ROLLING MILL DEPARTMENT

IN THE ROLLING MILL WE HANDLED HK AND HM METALS. WE PUT
METAL IN THE #7 OVEN, THEN WE ROLLED IT IN THE 7 MILL AND 4 MILL.
AFTER THAT PROCEDURE WAS DONE WE HAD TO SAND THIS METAL WITH
AIR SANDERS. THE COMPANY DID NOT PROVIDED US WITH ANYTHING
SUCH AS MASKS FOR PROTECTION.

WE PUT METAL IN THE OVENS TO BE FLATTENED, CUT IT TO THE WIDTH
AND LENGTH ON AN END SHEAR, METAL WAS THEN RUN THRU STENCIL
MACHINE LINE TO BE STENCILED AND OILED. THIS METAL WAS THEN
PACKED TO SHIP TO ROCKY FLATS, COLORADO. THE SCRAP METAL THAT
THE COMPANY THERE DID NOT USE WAS SHIPPED BACK TO OUR
COMPANY TO BE MELTED DOWN AND THEN THE ABOVE PROCEDURE WAS
STARTED ALL OVER AGAIN.

IT WAS YEARS LATER BEFORE THE COMPANY STARTED PROVIDING US
WITH FILTER MASKS TO BE WORN.

SINCERELY,

RETIREE

. _ :
a TAs Qua “Dey or tEBeune/ 200")

Gary L. Fletcher
Notary Public, State of Illinois
My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007



mill from 1970 to 1980. I saw thorium slabs being scalped in casting and thorium sheet
being sanded in the rolling mill.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated; 2-C%-
Dated: B-o% - oO |

Dated: _22 ~ of- 2 i —

Dated: L-OS- OF _ _

Dated: 2-0%- (6) ]

_
Dated: 25 -0F _

f

c
efore me this Sr] day of fete _ 4 , 2007

“OFFICIAL SEAL"
Gary L. Fletcher

Notary Public, State of Illinois
My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007



7 a}
m.
7a
21

Poin



headaches and nose bleeds along with nasty dark dirty substances from my nose. I also
had a severe cough that lasted for several days and shortness of breath that last longer.
Not to mention again that this fiberous dust was air bom in the room to the point that you
could not see daylight thru it. The garage doors were open and this dust did make its way
to the open air outdoors. This is what I was instructed to do by management. Ironically,
within a couple weeks time, some outside contractor came in to clean radioactive dust
from the rails and upper beams. It was explained to me that they only had a contract to do
the removal of the dust that was off the ground, and that was the only place that
radioactive dust was left over. I-was.also told.that the radioactive dust was in trace
elements. I was told that.the dust was harmless and that if one was.to eat a shoebox. full
of this dust in question, that it would give them no more than an upset set stomach.
Within a year’s time of this clean up is when workers started having strange symptoms,
for example

Heavy Press Bone Yard

There was an area in extrusion that was referred to as the heavy press bone yard. It was
between the die assembly area and the die shop. This area was also caddy corner north of
the extrusion foreman’s office. Every individual walked past this area to go to the heavy
end of extrusion and all heavy press workers passed near it also. To the best of my
recollection, this area was no smaller than 30 foot by 30 foot, and I do believe it to be no
larger than 80 foot by 80 foot. This area contained very large pieces of heavy press
tooling that required cranes to move, and some smaller pieces as well that could be lifted
by hand. These pieces were covered in inches of a fiberous dust that had not been
disturbed in a long time. The old timers claimed that the tooling in this area had not been
used in over 20 years. They also claimed that the tooling could never be used for
anything and that it had been used only once and it was contaminated. The old timers
claimed that the tooling was not salvageable for other jobs on the press because it would
contaminate that job. The old timers never said that it was radioactively contaminated;
they just lead me to believe it was contaminated with bad batch of metal. As with the
other request to clean some areas, this was on that list as well as with the dies in the
caustic house. This area took several days to clean. The same technique was used as in
the caustic house, though I believe to have cleaned this area first relevant to the caustic
house. I shoveled this dust into several trash bins and the street sweeper had Many more
full bins it had swept up from the air lances blowing the dust out into the isles. The dust
went thru the department and did not stay local to the bone yard or the surrounding isles.
It was in the water fountains, at other work stations, on picnic tables, etc. Many workers
of the department were complaining of headaches from the dust. Some workers were
complaining of breathing troubles and requested the air lances be restricted from use on
the dust. The argument from the old timers was once again, “the dust has been there for
over twenty years so why is it a problem now, we cannot breath or see thru this stuff and
its making us sick”. When all dust was blown from the bone yard and finally settled and
removed via street sweeper and shovel, the area was clean dust. I was not in charge of
removing the tooling though, maintenance took care of that part of the job. I would also
like to add this detail, I was given a dust mask for this clean up that was done with air
lances and my co-workers at the surrounding work stations were offered nothing. Some



would appear to be sunburned and dry to the point of cracking. This was due to the fact
that the air was so corrosive from the humid and warm air from the open caustic tank.
There was no adequate safety equipment given for the caustic tank. I was given full arm
length rubber gloves, an apron, and a plastic splash guard for my face. My skin was still
subject to-the open air which contained active caustic. The flakes would fall and land on
myself as well as others. Many times I had to make way to the locker rooms to strip
down because the flakes had fallen down into my collar and into my shirt. Most of the
time this irritation would result in the same feeling and rash that one would get from
handling fiber glass insulation. When tooling was put into the:caustic it would let off
colored gases and additional odors. All of these odors were put into the open air of the
plant and the outdoors. The caustic tank leaked extensively. The solution was leaking so

_ bad that it emptied a few times overnight and onto the ground. When the slurry pit was
deemed unusable, I was instructed to dispose of the waste caustic on the ground and into
the public sewer system. I did contest this order and I was told to dilute it with running
tap water if I was that worried about it.

Old Dies in-the Caustic House

There was an unorthodox housecleaning attempt made by the company prior to 2000.
1 was in die assembly with another worker, He and I were the only two
scheduled die assemblymen at the time. In the caustic house there was an invisible line
that divided the room in two halves of north and south with the points of the invisible line
being the garage door from extrusion to the garage door to the outside of the caustic
house. The southern half was where the caustic tank and all of its components were
located and on the north end of this room was a significant amount of old dies to what we
were told to be old light end presses that did not exist any longer. These dies were
covered in a fiberous dust and the residue from the caustic tank in addition to bird
droppings. According to old timers at the facility the dies had been there for twenty plus
years and it was an out of sight out of mind expression. There was also a single doorway
on the north wall of this room to a very large and multiple room office that was rendered
abandoned for some unknown reason. My fellow die assemblyman and I were instructed
to clean all dust from these dies, then to put any of them in the acid tanks to clean any
visible left over metal from past jobs. Once the dies were clean we were told to put them
in the steel bin to be sold off to the scrap company. Before we could even get started, the
company brought in a 20 to 30 yard sized dumpster with an opening door so we could
drive fork trucks into it and then we were told that they were going elsewhere to be
scrapped and not to the regular scrap place. Just out of curiosity my co-worker and I
looked up some of the dies and discovered that some belonged to presses that were still
used in the light end of the extrusion department. To clean up all of the dust we were
given air lances and dust masks. To give an understanding on how much dust was on the
dies, one die in particular had an opening in it as big as a tennis ball, and it was filled
completely with this fiberous type of dust. I would guess there to be easily one thousand
of these types of dies and several cubic yards of this dust. So in short, an air lance was
used to blow this dust all out and into the open floor where a broom and street sweeper
could access it. The dust was placed in with the regular trash. The dies were cleaned as
instructed and placed meticulously in the dumpster. For several days I encountered


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS

)
)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Thorium Metal Was Processed at the Madison Plant After 1960

My name is , Twas employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1960
to as an inspector in the Casting, Extrusion arid Rolling Mill departments. Thorium
metal was being cast, extruded and rolled at the Madison Plant during my entire period of
employment. I know that some of this thorium metal was shipped to Rocky Flats, co.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1963 to -

From 1973 to I worked in the rolling mill, hand salvaging metal sheets.
Sanding was constantly being done in the Rolling Mill. I worked in extrusion during the
1980’s cutting billets that were to be used as cannon caps. These were then shipped to
Collinsville to be reamed out and then shipped to Rocky Flats. I was told that some of the
metal we processed during my years of employment was thorium.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from, 1954 to

I worked in the pot room from 1954 to Thorium came in small barrels
labeled thorium and was added to the pots. One of my foreman told me that the thorium
metal was to be shipped to Rocky Flats. Later, I worked as a finisher, sawing, boring and
scalping aluminum and magnesium billets and slabs. Finishing work produced lots of
dust. I later worked in the warehouse, where thorium chips and sludge were stored within
a fenced-in area. All of this material was stored in barrels, and we inventoried it twice a
year.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1959 to

I worked in:the Light Press Extrusion Department as a finisher helper, finisher, .
press helper, press operator, billet cutter, die assemblyman and packer. I saw order sheets
indicating that some of the metal being processed between 1970 through 1980 was
Thorium, I was told that some of the thorium that we processed during this period was for
the government and was being shipped to Rocky Flats. .


Magnesium sludges were stored or warehoused in ‘loose forms (cakes & broken cakes) and
sealed in 55 gallon drums. I was told by numerous long-time employees that when thorium was
melted and cast in the Pot Room, that they would place the sludge debris from the melting units
in the Pot Room. Two of these units were continuous casting units and the third was called an
intermittent unit. I never saw the intermittent unit run. In my first couple of years in the Pot
Room, I saw a big area between the intermittent unit and the pump wash room. This area was
full of pallets stacked on top of each other with 55 gallon drums of magnesium sludge. Lots of
them had fallen over and rusted open and were exposed. Sometimes when I would take a pump
or stirrer back to the pump wash to be cleaned, I would have to put a pallet on another fork truck,
push back the broken barrels and debris just so I could get a pathway opened up. When it rained,
the roof leaked really bad and the barrels, broken barrels, oxidized barrels and lose materials
would get wet and run all over the floor. You would walk through it and drive your fork’ trucks
through it. It was like walking in mud. I remember there was a bathroom just eight to ten feet
away from this area of barrels and debris. There was another big pile of magnesium sludge
outside of the Pot Room in the warehouse, north of the Pot Room. It was mainly stacked cakes
and broken loose sludge material. They had also stored magnesium sludge.outside and west of
the Leaching department. It was easy for sludge to get mixed up because there was so much of it
that you would just pile it up in any opening that was available; just as long as it was mag sludge.
At different times, I would be reassigned to weight and load sludge: into railroad cars, using a
fork truck for cakes’ or by using the rollover fork truck to dump boxes of loose and powdery mag
sludge. I would end up breathing a lot of the stuff, especially when loading railroad cars.

HALF ROUND SLUDGE PANS (Possibly Thorium contaminated)

When I was hired into the Pot Room, our job as melters included sludging out the waste
material of each pot after the alloying and refining process which was approximately every. 45
minutes to one hour depending on the alloy being ran or the speed of the metal being cast. "We
would lower the sludge ladle into the. Pot and empty the waste contents into large. rectangular

. pans called sludge pans. These pans were 4 ft wide by 6 ft long and 2 ft deep. We would fill
these with the waste sludge and take them to the north end of the Pot Room to solidify. Later,
after they hardened, we would flip them over to dump out the. solidified cake of sludge and use
the pan again, When these pans were dumped, sometimes they wouldn’t be completely
solidified and the sludge would pour out and create lots of smoke and fumes. We would be
breathing this stuff. If they were solid; they would fall out when flipped over and'dust and debris
would be thrown into the air and we would breathe this also.

After being exposed to heat and. flipping for so long, these. pans would: get bent and
distorted and it became difficult to get the sludge cakes to dislodge. So the maintenance
department was told to make a different kind of sludge receptacle. The new sludge receptacles ©
were made out of old- unusable pots that had been used to melt and alloy the magnesium. These
could not be used in the melting process any more because the outside walls of the pot had
become too thin. Thick metal skids were welded on the: bottoms of these pots. Approximately
one-half of the pot was used to make this new type of sludge receptacle. There were dozens of
these worn out pots outside of the west side of thé Pot Room from before I hired in. The. point
I’m making is this, Were these pots used ‘in earlier days when thorium was being melted and
cast in the Pot Room? And if.so, why were we exposed to this equipment without being told? It

DOW Affidavit: Page 3 of 4


time with no days off. There were no side effects what so ever. In . 49971
was fortunate to have been hired on at Spectrulite. I actually enjoyed working there for
the most part. I served my 90 working days on probation and became a union member.
Shortly after becoming a union member, my Diabetes took an extreme turn for the worst
and never stopped to look back or recover. I went into another Diabetic coma, I lost my
eyesight completely in both eyes, I got neuropathy in all four extremities, and I came to be
mentally ill and even suicidal. Medicine did not help, it made other complications worse.
I was always ill from one complication or another. Eventually after all of the hardship
and experiences, I filed for disability and it was awarded immediately. Since these
conditions set in, they have not reversed and more have joined in. I get nose bleeds that
required tampons to be placed up my nose to stop the bleeding, my stomach is very
sensitive to a lot of foods I used to enjoy, I now have kidney disease, I get chest pains
regularly, in addition to other conditions including respiratory difficulties. I will say that I
had my eyes removed from their orbital sockets and had them worked on which helped
greatly, but now my vision corrected fluctuates about 20/100 which is not good and the
extent of my visual damage is earth shattering. Once | left the factory, the rapid
degeneration of my conditions was not as radical though they still plague me daily. The
speed at which all of these complications kicked in was all done in less than a year.
Surgeons originally attempted to repair my eyes using cauterizing lasers to stop the
internal bleeding that was causing my vision loss. The laser surgeries and treatments
never helped, they made it worse. Any time I ever got sick was directly attributed to my
Diabetes. I had accepted that back then because I had no knowledge of what I do now.
Now with the insight I have been given thru this investigation, I am rethinking my health
and conditions. For two years on my best days I could not see more than hints of light
and unidentifiable moving objects. Some days during these two years I could not tell the
difference between dark and light. These two years are when my daughter was starting to
walk, and grow, this was my first born [ am referring to. I was young and missed some
things I was expected to experience in life.

Buried Radioactive Waste and other Suspicious Statements
Told at Orientation

When I hired in at the plant, was in human resources and the spokesperson
for new hire orientation. We were told about basic company policies such as call offs,
pay days, and general safety. The only mention of radioactive material was done by
and in a very joking manner. She gave the story the feel of folklore and rumor. She did
not confirm or deny the story she was about to tell. stated that she had heard there
was a hill outside of casting on the facility’s property that contained buried radioactive
waste that made up the hill. The entire conversation was treated as a joke and rumor with

“ even laughing as she told it resulting in the rest of us new hires laughing as well. :
Comments were even made that the ground may glow at night. She made it sound so
science fiction nobody even considered the story to pose any concern. New hires were
also informed that the facility took great care of the surrounding poverty stricken
community by hiring minorities, women, under educated individuals, individuals with
health condition, and friends and relatives of existing workers that may not have the
resources or skill to get employment elsewhere. Looking back now, I see what the true


intention was. If a family member was to become ill, if they worked at the plant, it would.
be difficult to say if the individual got sick from home or work, in addition to getting sick
from an exposed worker coming home and bringing contamination with them. If a person
| with health issues was hired, if they became ill, it would be safe to say it was pre-existing.
Undereducated people may not have the intelligence to realize that they are messing with
harmful materials or waste, plus an undereducated person may feel intimidated of losing
their job/income if they became insubordinate by asking questions relevant to
safety/suspicion. Traditionally and historically, minorities have been stereotyped to not
have extensive financial or economical resources. What I mean to say is, if a minority
came up with a claim that he or she was exposed to harmful items, they would not be
taken seriously with the attitude that they are a minority and do not deem a threat due to
lack of support in various levels. To validate my claim, look at where the facility is
located. The contamination that poisoned the employées had to poison the community in
which it is located. This community is stricken in poverty and the lack of resources for

H these residents to get justice is less likely than that of a non minority community. Many

i of these community members worked at this facility. As I stated, now I see why such
statements and goals were set by the company.

A person’s goal in life is to be successful, and acquire things such as a family. These
men and women worked at this facility to provide for these goals and families. Nobody
went to work specifically to get ill or make their family and friends ill. Nobody went to
work to make the community ill. These men and women went to work to, to make a
living, not die, or live a shortened life because of illness.

I-11-OG

Official Seat
Ann Carlisle
Notary Public, State of Illinois
My Commission Expires March 17, 2009

Madson
Ockelan \\, AO



AFFIDAVIT |
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON _ )
- Affidavit of

° My name is I started work at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. (SCI) in
"1989, My first job was as a security guard. As a security guard I recall a fire
that started on the magnesium floor that caught the roof on fire. Myself as well as plant
personnel.went to the outside on the roof to extinguish the fire. We were told that the
workers were melting radioactive chips when the roof caught fire. We did not have any
protective equipment on and were not instructed to put any on. All employees involved
in fighting the fire inhaled a large amount of smoke.

In 1991, I was promoted to a foreman in the casthouse of the plant. It should
also be noted I also worked as a foreman in:the extrusion departrnent. At one point, I
can’t recall the date, we were either melting radioactive chips or casting metal with
thorium in it. At the end of the shift, personnel from the lab ( " _) came to the
plant and checked our bodies and clothes with a Geiger counter. We also had to remove
our-work clothes and give them to the lab personnel. At this point, we again weré not
wearing protective masks or informed to do-so.

At some point after the strike of 2002, 1 was working as a fork truck driver and my job
was getting all magnesium scrap and aluminum scrap in-the plant. This was after SCI
had filed bankruptcy. Also at some point after the strike and before Magnesium
Electron leased the premises in August of 2003, an outside contractor came in and did a
check for radioactive material. I cannot be sure of the date when this occurred; only that
it was during the above-mentioned timeframe: The scrap and other items they found
were placed next to a scrap scale in casting across from the magnesium floor. The scrap
and other items was roped off but.the scale was within two feet of the scrap and was
‘used daily by myself and other employees. We were not warned to use another scale or
to. wear protective equipment around the roped off scrap and items. As of my getting ill
and being terminated, the contaminated scarp and other items were still next to the scale.

In 2005 I was admitted to the hospital with an enlarged heart, atrial fibrillation
and congestive heart failure. I was terminated by Magnesium Electron on

due to my health condition. I am currently receiving the company’s disability
from Mutual of Omaha for two (2) years.

It should also be noted that until the rafters were cleaned on the magnesium floor,
whenever there was a pop, blow, or explosion, there was an extremely large amount of
dust that would fall from the rafters. The dust was so thick that one could not see more
than one to two feet in front of themselves. I am unsure of the cleanup date on the
rafters, but I experienced several blows that caused the above-mentioned problem.

DOW Affidavit: Page ! of 2


AFFIDAVIT

STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Thorium Metal Was Processed at the Madison Plant After 1960

My name is ‘ I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from
1962 to Theld various jobs during those years, including finisher helper, mag melter
in the pot room and a fork lift operator delivering material to the pot room. Thorium was
run periodically at the Madison plant throughout the years T worked there.

My name is . I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1963 to

I worked approximately years as a mag melter in casting, years as a fork truck
driver in the rolling mill and years as a fork truck driver in extrusion. Thorium was
melted in the pot room in the late 1960's and early 1970’s.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1961 to

I worked throughout the plant, but worked primarily as a helper and truck driver in
the rolling mill. Thorium was run on the Number 4 and Number 7 mills throughout the
1960’s. We were given Roentgen badges by To my knowledge the badges
were collected and then thrown away. .

My name is 1 was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1954
to I worked in the alloy section of the casting department from 1954 to . We
processed a lot of thorium during that period. We had, no respirators, masks or radiation
badges.




AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)
Affidavit of

My name is I worked at Spectrulite from 1990 to I hired in as a
utility man in Casting, Two weeks later I became a head operator in the Leaching department.
I worked there for two years. While I was working there during training I was working with
sludge from the Pot Room. They said we were recovering Mag from the sludge. We would
take the sludge from the Pot Room which was in large cakes and barrels. We would use a
jackhammer on a bobcat to break up the sludge. We did not know what ‘was in the sludge.. We
would put the sludge in baskets and put them in large tanks, fill with water, and add Epson salt
and soak for about four hours. Then we would take samples by taking a cup of the water. arid
sludge,-mix and put in HO2 acid. If it made a whirlpool, it was not ready to pump through the
presses. If it did not, it was okay to pump the tanks. I-asked why and I was told we could not
pump the water through the city sewer drains until the beryllium was neutralized. That is why,
we used HO2 to check it. 1 also heard that there. was thorium in the sludge, but if you didn’t
get a rash, then it wouldn’t hurt you.

I worked in the Pot Room for about three weeks in 1994 and I started to break out in a rash on
my hands and neck. I was out of the Pot Room for six weeks and worked in the shipping
department. When I was healed, I went back to the Pot room and worked a week and broke
out in a’bad rash again. Then the supervisor took pictures of my hands and neck. Then I was
transferred to the Extrusion department. . 1 worked on 7-9 and heavy press. I was néver
allowed to work in the Pot Room again. I was never told why I kept getting the rashes. ‘I also
don’t know why they took pictures of my hands and neck. The company never told my why.
I worked the last five years in the Extrusion department on the 7 T press.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.
el

_ vy

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before she this day 0 2007

BAN
LUNOIS

ARAMA LED

DOW Affidavit: Page | of |


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Affidavit of '

° My name is . I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from
1954 to . Regarding affidavits requested by attorneys representing employees of
Dow Chemical that were exposed to Thorium HK and HM through the years 1962 to
1975, I am attesting in this letter that I worked and physically handled this metal in
rolled sheet form in various gauges during these said years. I was never informed of the
danger of handling this rolled sheet which consisted of among other alloys, Thorium HK
and HM or given any safety instructions or protective equipment prior to handling.

Following this Thorium metal that was processed in the Rolling Mill to a specific gauge
it was sent to an area where I proceeded to stencil identification on each sheet that had
been rolled on a Stencil Machine and subsequently..packaged by other employees.
Thousands of these Thorium sheets were handled during the said years.

In the shipping department of the Rolling Mill the finished packaged product (Thorium
sheet) was loaded on semi tractor trailers and shipped to various customers. Some of

these customers were plants located in Rocky Flats, Colorado, Lockheed, Martin
Marietta, Boeing, and the Department of Defense and the Department Of Energy.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

~
Dated: <2. 2007

ay SW efore me this LZ day of. LEB , 2007
OFFICIAL Si
JSotes Feibe / ust

JOSEPH J. HRABUSICKY
Notary Public, State of Itinois
‘Ut Commission Expires 10-14-09

Affidavit: Page | of 1


Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: 2 -O5 a |
pues 2-05-07")

7
SWORN pefor me this day of [E Rev 2007

AAA

S°GEFICIAL SEAL"
Gary L. Fletcher

Notary Public, State of Illinois
My Commission Exp. 03/07/2007



was magnesium or aluminum and dispose of it in the appropriate alloy’s scrap bin. Most
of the time all of the relevant information about pieces of metal was stamped or written
on each individual piece of metal such as alloy, die number, run number, job number, and
lot number. In the case of the pieces I had found in the abandoned lockers, many items
were not marked. Some old timers that were entertained with the idea that a younger
worker or any worker at the plant would actually make work for their self stopped by the
locker room from time to time. Several old timers swore that many of the pieces I had
taken from the lockers were in fact Thorium and other metals that had no business being
in the plant. My. first janitor’s cart was made of Thorium and oddly enough was the same
cart that was allegedly confiscated from extrusion some time prior. I had asked some of
the foremen why the Thorium was still present in the department if there was a contractor
that was in a year earlier doing a clean up. I was told that the company had a grant to pay
for the clean up. The contract was contingent to the clean up was enough to pay for the
crane rails in extrusion only. It was also detailed to me that the only threat was the dust
on the crane rails in extrusion which is why there was only enough money to clean that
isolated area. I was also told that the contractors were paid only for dust on the rails, not
to remove solids or anything on the ground or lower than the overhead crane rails. I was
also told that no other department was a concem therefore again that only the crane rails
in extrusion needed cleaned and that is why the contract was set forth and that is also why
there was just enough negotiated grant money to do only the job the contractors did.

was the supervisor that consistently rattled off all of these details. The
foremen under him merely repeated what they were told by There were
locations in the rolling mill that I cleaned up that were far worse in respect of quantity
and quality of dust than I had ever witnessed in the facility. When I cleaned up these
areas, the dust was placed with the rest of the daily garbage and not in any special
disposal bins. was the man that was responsible for taking all of the
factories trash bins and dumping them into the ones that the trash service picked up.
did this everyday on the day shift. passed away from an apparent heart attack.
There were always deaths of workers past and current, but they were intermittent and
typical. I realize though, that once the clean ups began, the rates of deaths and illnesses
were significantly frequent. It was almost like a milestone in a timeline beginning in
1999 to 2000. I also recall several employees acquiring Diabetes around this time. i

and were two of these men that got Diabetes, and they came to me

with their questions and personal experience with the disease. There were others as well,
but these two stick out in my mind the most.

A Personal Note about My Health

1am adding this section in to my statement just in case. It is evident to me that as this
investigation furthers, so does more questions and scenarios. I have been a full blown
brittle insulin dependant Diabetic since age 2. I have done the best I could have with my
Diabetes. The worst thing that had ever happened was that on graduation moming from
high school, I went into a Diabetic coma. I had no ill effects or complications from this
specific coma. I had worked continually since I was eight years old. I went to school; I
did as I was supposed to and succeeded. Other than the coma, I never missed or called
off work nor got ill. I worked as many hours as possible and even worked for weeks at a



. AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

)
COUNTY OF MADISON _ )

‘Affidavit of

My name is . \. I worked at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. from 1989 to :
“In of 1989, I worked two months in the Leaching department. ‘There I

leamed the process of reclaiming magnesium from sludge that was brought over from the Pot
Room. There was quite a large pile of sludge already. Idid my job and never questioned
anything. Several months later while working back in the Casting department, I was told by
one of the old timers, that there was thorium in that sludge and that it might not
be good for you. So I asked my ex-coworkers in Leaching if they knew anything about this
thorium. They said that they asked the same questions to their supervisors and the belief was
if you had no allergic reactions to it, you was safe working around it. Since I worked a short.

time in that department, my worries were small then.

In 1992, I worked in the Extrusion department on No. 7 Press for about one year when one
company, Martin-Marietta, leased the No. 7 Press for a week “work cycle”. They brought in
their own metal billets to run through the press. It was a process never-ran before by me. It
involved using composite carbon follower blocks... It was very hard and heavy metal to _
extrude. Much different than aluminum or magnesium. I asked several of the Martin-Marietta -
employees what alloy this was and they all gave the same answer, “special alloy”. We had ‘no
reason at the.time to believe it was harmful. We believed it was Rand D research ‘because of ~
the intense attention being paid by the Martin-Marietta employees. They would take every”

. Single metal chip, every piece of scrap, everything, even the crates the billets came in which
were made of wood. One month later, the Martin-Marietta Company. came back and leased
the No. 7 Press out again; this time for three days. We would run six to seven billets a day for
Martin-Marietta in both months during their “work cycles”. .I worked on this press for a dozen
years and this:-was the only time we ever did this process. :

During the 1990s, the thorium being processed in the Pot Room was Thor230 Iwas told, But,
the thorium above me on 7 press was Thorium 232; very different indééd. The Department of '
Energy stated in 1989, in, 1993, again 1996, ‘Thorium 232 and Uranium 238, both in |
concentrations were above and exceeding guidelines: So, the Thorium 232 was what wwe ran
for Martin-Marietta, in secret, from me and my co-workers, with no protection, no warning, no
choice. You cannot make your decision without taking these facts into account. This
contamination was preventable.

During 1999 and-2000, I-rode over to Casting one day... While there, I brought back to. my desk
a small,-silver bar. ingot. We used it as.a paper weight, 1 now know it was a bar of beryllium.

We used it daily for over a year unaware of its hazards and health risks.

DOW Affidavit: Page | of 2


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS —)

)
COUNTY OF MADISON)

Thorium Metal Was Processed at the Madison Plant After 1960

My nameis’ | I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1953
to I worked in the rolling mill the entire time, as a roller and crane operator.
Thorium sheet was run on the Number 2 and 4 Mills and small ingots were run on the
Number 7 Mill from the early to late 1960’s. Men wearing protective suits would
accompany the thorium through the rolling mill and instruct us how to run it. I was told
that some of the metal was sent to McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis for use in the space
program and some of it was sent to Rocky Flats.

My name is I was employed at the Dow Chemical plant from 1952 to

I worked primarily as a-roller in the rolling mill. I was stationed primarily at Mill Number
1 Mill, but worked on every mill except Number 6 Mill. I don’t know when thorium was
first run at the mill, but 1 first rolled HK31 and HM21 sometime in the early 1960’s and
was still rolling HK3! until 1987 or 1988. Both HM and HK were gouged and sanded
before being to sent to the Number 7 Mill and was gouged and sanded between passes on
the Number 7 Mill. Paper masks were available but we were not required to wear them.


The canteen was located within 100 feet of the 7 press area. When the outside contractors
came into the facility to clean the rails of suspected radioactive substances, the plastic
sheeting they used to separate their clean up zones from the general plant was
significantly close to the canteen. Many times employees called off work due to getting
severely ill from eating items from the canteen. I myself had gotten deathly ill from
eating in the canteen and brought it to several people’s attention. The foods in the
vending machines were inspected and the food was in date and not expired. When an
employee would call off work, it had to be done thru the guard shack. The guards
recorded the phone calls for verification and record sakes. Information for a call off was
the employee’s name, clock number, department, shift that was being called off, the
expected return date, and the illness causing the call off. There were many recorded call
offs due to canteen related sicknesses. Many workers including myself saw immediate
effects within an hours’ time of eating from the canteen. Severe vomiting and
dehydration were common. One time I went home after getting ill from the canteen and
had to go to the emergency room. There was blood in my vomit and the doctor’s were
baffled. A scope was done on my stomach internally. My doctor stated that the inside of
my stomach was raw and seeping blood all over, but he could not isolate a specific origin
of the bleeding. I was diagnosed with gastritis and ever since I have had a problem eating
certain foods and fruit juices.

Water Fountains

There was water fountains located throughout the plant. The water fountains were
located out in the open and exposed to the plant’s contaminated environment. I
personally have had to clean water fountain surfaces for sanitation purposes. Any
employee would have to wipe down a fountain and let the water run for a short time to
get the grit, grime, and fiberous dusts rinsed off the stream of drinking water so they did
not ingest any. If an employee would have just used the fountain, within 10 minutes
afterwards, the next individual would have to re-wipe the fountains again. Pigeons would
often poop in the water fountains, and several fountains even had feathers from pigeons
that would bath in the water fountains. Almost all fountains in the plant were up against
the walls and under the crane rails. In extrusion near 7 press, there was such a fountain.
The fountain was installed within 20 feet of 7 press for the sole reason of preventing the
operator and workers of 7 press from having to leave the press for a simple drink of
water. This fountain was one of the worst fountains relative to sanitation. People made
many complaints about the dirty fountains and the horrible tasting water. There were
never any modifications such as putting booths or a roof like device over the fountains to
keep the air born contaminates from building up on the fountains. The way the
complaints were dealt with was an inline water filter for each water fountain that were
claimed to remove the same things as a standard household type of water filter that gets
installed on a refrigerator and ice maker. As a janitor, I was not given a cleaning product
exclusively for fountains; I was to figure out how to do that on my.own with what
resources I had. As I had stated though, the metal dust from near by work stations, the
old dust from years prior, the pigeon wastes, the oil, and chemicals from nearby
equipment ,and machines always kept the drinking water contaminated. There were cases
that people complained of getting nauseated and getting headaches after drinking from the


Ib ~ Pies Ahab vent cleened end Scrapeed



The above accounts are to the best of my memory, knowledge and recollection. :

Further, Affiant sayeth not, . ooo

| Dated: 2 -2- (6) |

ap pre me thisX WD day of Fienlee “2007

Notary Pobte /

"OPFICIAL SEALY
Gary L. Fletehe
Notary Public, State,of, Hinois
My Commission Exp: esd

DOW Affidavit: Page 2 of 2


AEFIDAVIT
STATEOFILLINOIS +)

COUNTY OF MADISON _ )

Affidavit of

~ My name is _ I worked at Spectrulite Consortium Inc. from 1993 to We
had a huge amount of ingots shipped in and stored ‘in No. 4 building and any time we moved
them, we removed the tags off of them. The tag was in a foreign language. A heard that the
ingots were contaminated.

Further, Affiant sayeth not.

Dated: 2- 5° °7 _

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before me this <" ‘day of hit Ay ___, 2007

Nytorwa 0 Abul Utd 4

Notary Public

OLLOLOVYLL UD UA EL OLECOUDUAUTUATELLUMULIUUME Lg

“OFFICIAL SEAL”
DEBORAH A. HALDEMAN
NOTARY PUBLIC—STATE OF ILLINOIS.
MY COMMISSION EXPIRES AUG. +, 2009

ALLLTLTEOLLDILTLUETLELTEETTL ELE LLOWUD EG

Ny

Senin
Sawn

DOW Affidavit 2007 Page | of t


AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF ILLINOIS )

. )
COUNTY OF MADISON)
Affidavit of ,

My name is Anthony J. Ortiz. I worked at Dow Chemical Company from 1962 to
I worked in Rolling Mill, Pot Room, Casting Department, and Extrusion.

When I worked in the rolling mill, we rolled and shipped thorium to Rocky Flats,
Colorado and other plants in the United States. We received thorium scrap material
back from Rocky Flats, Colorado and other plants.

We reprocessed it over again at the Madison, Illinois Plant from 1960 to 1970.

Further, Affi yetb/not:

Dated: = ©

2007

Public

POCTADE CO OO AE OLALALEATELELIEELETELLUVOOOE,

“OFFICIAL SEAL”
SUZANNE W. CALLAHAN
NOTARY PUBLIC—STATE OF ILLINOIS
MADISON COUNTY, IL
MAY COMMISSION EXPIRES OCT. 10, 2009

Dawwnenned

DOW Affidavit: » Page 1 of I