Hanford downwinder dies of thyroid cancer

[rsmith6621]

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. —

Shannon Rhodes, who lost a major federal court case seeking to prove her thyroid cancer was caused by radioactive emissions from a nuclear weapons production site, has died.

Rhodes, 69, died of complications from thyroid cancer May 15, The Spokesman-Review reported Tuesday.

Rhodes was born in Spokane and grew up on a farm near Colfax. She was exposed to radioactive iodine-131 emissions from Hanford in the final years of World War II and the early years of the Cold War, according to a claim filed against the private contractors who ran Hanford for the government. Iodine was an unwanted byproduct of plutonium production.

She was among some 2,400 people who sued in the 1990s, claiming Hanford emissions made them sick.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015134650_apwadownwinderdeath.html?syndication=rss

[Skidmore]

1. Have a look at this site.

http://www.260press.com/nuclear-fallout-nevada-test-site.htm

I'm a thyroid cancer survivor. When I was diagnosed, my uncle pointed out to me that we grew up in an area where there was fallout from nuclear weapons testing in the post WWII period. Made note of the many cancers in the area, including thyroid.

[KT2000]

2. Sadly, she is one of many

The courts will rarely provide a win for people injured from environmental exposures. The free marketers have been courting judges with trips to educate them to use an impossible standard (Frye) for linking illnesses and deaths to environmental causes.

Try to find the questionnaire used by defendants' attorneys in toxic tort cases. ex: do you wear mascara? How many times a day do you walk past the laundry room? There are so many toxic exposures in our lives that they are able to create doubt just by describing a person's daily life.