Editing Hanford Site (section)

==Occupational health concerns==
While major releases of radioactive material ended with the reactor shutdown in the 1970s and many of the most dangerous wastes are contained, there were continued concerns about contaminated groundwater headed toward the Columbia River and about workers' health and safety.<ref name=Troubled/> In 1976, [[Harold McCluskey]], a Hanford technician, received the largest recorded dose of [[americium]] following a laboratory accident in the [[Plutonium Finishing Plant]]. Due to prompt medical intervention, he survived the incident and died eleven years later of natural causes.<ref>{{cite news|agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=June 3, 2005 |title=Hanford nuclear workers enter site of worst contamination accident |newspaper=[[Billings Gazette]] |access-date=March 6, 2017 |url=http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/03/build/nation/94-contamination.inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013185723/http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews%2F2005%2F06%2F03%2Fbuild%2Fnation%2F94-contamination.inc |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Since 1987, workers have reported exposure to harmful vapors after working around underground nuclear storage tanks, with no solution found. More than forty workers in 2014 alone reported smelling vapors and became ill with "nosebleeds, headaches, watery eyes, burning skin, contact dermatitis, increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, coughing, sore throats, expectorating, dizziness and nausea{{spaces}}... Several of these workers have long-term disabilities."<ref name=Katu /> Doctors checked workers and cleared them to return to work. Monitors worn by tank workers have found no samples with chemicals close to the federal limit for occupational exposure.<ref name=Katu>{{cite news |url=http://www.katu.com/news/local/Washington-to-sue-over-nuclear-sites-tank-vapors--283276831.html |title=Washington to sue over nuclear site's tank vapors |author=Nicholas K. Geranios |publisher=Associated Press |date=November 19, 2014 |access-date=December 19, 2014 |archive-date=November 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129021716/http://www.katu.com/news/local/Washington-to-sue-over-nuclear-sites-tank-vapors--283276831.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In August 2014, [[Occupational Safety and Health Administration|OSHA]] ordered the facility to rehire a contractor and pay $220,000 in back wages for firing the employee for [[whistleblowing]] on safety concerns at the site.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=26571 |title=OSHA orders Hanford nuclear facility contractor to reinstate worker fired for raising environmental safety concerns |publisher=OSHA |date=August 20, 2014}}</ref> On November 19, 2014, the attorney general of Washington, [[Bob Ferguson (politician)|Bob Ferguson]], said the state planned to sue the DOE and its contractor to protect workers from hazardous vapors at Hanford. A 2014 report by the DOE [[Savannah River National Laboratory]] initiated by 'Washington River Protection Solutions' found that DOE's methods to study vapor releases were inadequate, particularly, that they did not account for short but intense vapor releases. They recommended "proactively sampling the air inside tanks to determine its chemical makeup; accelerating new practices to prevent worker exposures; and modifying medical evaluations to reflect how workers are exposed to vapors".<ref name=Katu/>