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Earl Davenport never backed down from a job that
exposed him to deadly nerve agents or simulants sprayed into the dry
desert air of the Army's Dugway Proving Ground.
A government employee at Dugway since the early 1960s, he recalls
receiving shots of small amounts of biological agents to build up his
immune system and having "tons of the stuff all over me," while
clothed in a rubber suit and cleaning off contaminated equipment.
"I wasn't afraid of anything," he says. "If you are scared, you can't
work with it. You will go insane. I met guys who were afraid, and they
were a safety hazard."
But on a recent overcast day at his home, the 54-year-old retired
government test officer feared the weather. Davenport - who loved
working in the open air and, at first glance, appears the robust
outdoorsman - said if it rains or snows, he faces severe breathing
problems, rapid heartbeat and possible onset of another heart attack.
A cumbersome oxygen machine helps him sleep, and several bottles of
blood thinners, heart "rhythm pills" and inhalers are atop his
dresser.
"I'm just surviving," he said. "I have no life."
Like many workers at Dugway today (see accompanying story), Davenport
said he never doubted the assurances and judgments of his superiors,
who briefed him on the hazards of his job. But he assumed that if they
were wrong, the government would take responsibility for it and
protect its workers.
Now, Davenport, who will testify Wednesday before a Senate committee
on Dugway's testing activities, said he was wrong.
"I want the people working at Dugway to know that you are at your own
risk," he said.
Davenport recalled learning that lesson on July 13, 1984. It was a
breezy day in a remote corner of the vast 800,000-acre proving ground
in Utah's west desert.
The Army was testing a laser system that would detect nerve agents.
Davenport was operating a sprayer, blowing a fog of nerve agent
simulant called dimethyl methylphosphonate, or DMMP, into the path of
the laser beam. Nearly a decade before, after an errant cloud of nerve
gas killed a herd of sheep outside Dugway, Congress had banned
open-air testing of actual agents, requiring the use of safer
simulants, such as DMMP.
During the test, Davenport noticed a sudden shift in wind direction
and quickly cut off the spray. But before he could don his protective
mask, a cloud of the chemical enveloped him.
"I could feel it on my skin and taste it. It was oily," Davenport
said. "I tried to wipe it off and put my mask on."
But Davenport wasn't too concerned about getting hit with a simulant.
He and other workers trusted the Army's assurances that DMMP was
"practically non-toxic," according to a brief description of DMMP
available to Dugway employees at the time of the test.
"May irritate mucous membranes and respiratory tract," the brief
outline said. "Prolonged skin contact may cause irritation, blisters
and burns."
Dugway's safety office recommended workers using DMMP wear a military
protective mask, rubber gloves and apron.
Workers always carried masks, Davenport said, but rarely wore them
during a test; they merely monitored wind direction and quickly
slipped their masks on if the chemical cloud blew their way, he said.
But Davenport's exposure was excessive. He recalled a medic checking
him out at the test site, then he left to shower and fill out an
accident report.
"But the next day I felt different," he recalled. "I was wheezing and
coughing up phlegm."
The cough syrup and antibiotics the Dugway health clinic gave him on
follow-up visits didn't cure his cough and congestion, and his
condition worsened over the years. He easily fell victim to colds and
the flu. He was short of breath at high altitudes. He suffered a heart
attack in 1988. In 1990, illness forced him to miss work an average
six days a month, and he left work twice in an ambulance because of
heart and breathing problems. He said the days he felt the worst were
when outdoor simulant tests were conducted.
A large, strong man and an avid outdoorsman, Davenport's health
decline was demoralizing. His superiors found him a safety risk,
eventually removing him from chemical and biological agent work. At
the urging of his doctor, he took an early retirement buyout in
November 1992.
Fearing demotion and losing federal retirement benefits, Davenport
never complained about his health problems to his superiors. But, he
said, the thought it could have been caused by DMMP exposure often
crossed his mind. He recalled several years after the accident,
posting signs in an indoor laboratory before a DMMP test, warning
workers that the substance could cause cancer.
"I started to wonder, What the hell did I breathe?" he said.
He did some research while he had access to files and found the Army
had put federal workers at a serious health risk by using DMMP. Among
his findings:
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Whisenant also said a standard respirator mask is
not sufficient for protection against DMMP. He recommended that the
chemical be used only in a laboratory, and even then personnel
handling DMMP should wear a mask hooked up to a separate oxygen
supply.
Dugway safety officials confirmed that DMMP was used extensively as a
simulant for chemical agents until 1988, when the Army surgeon general
reviewed studies identifying it as a "suspect carcinogen."
"Since 1988 the use of DMMP has been reduced significantly because the
recommended exposure limit required protective clothing criteria and
engineering controls that were so astringent that DMMP lost most of
its value as a simulant," Dugway's public affairs office said in a
written response to Deseret News queries about DMMP.
Although the Army clearly miscalculated the health hazards of DMMP for
several years, the government has concluded that Davenport's health
problems were his own making. Indeed, his lifelong smoking habit has
made it nearly impossible to attribute even a small portion of his
poor health to exposure to DMMP.
He said that when his congestion and coughing persisted for nearly a
month after his accident, a Dugway clinic nurse recommended he visit
the University of Utah hospital's pulmonary division. A hospital
report diagnosed the problem as a "mild exacerbation of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease by irritant effect of DMMP."
Meanwhile, Dugway responded with its own diagnosis - four months after
the accident - highlighting Davenport's smoking habit and downplaying
the impact of DMMP. "The exposure (to DMMP) may have caused acute
episode, but (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) from smoking may
be chronic," the report said.
But Dugway spokeswoman Carol Fruick said if employees believe they
have been harmed on the job, they can seek recourse through federal
Department of Labor or the courts.
Shortly before his retirement, Davenport filed a workman's
compensation claim for his 1984 exposure to DMMP and his subsequent
health problems. The claim was initially accepted, and Davenport
received benefits for a brief period. But a follow-up medical
evaluation by a U.S. Department of Labor-appointed physician resulted
in the claim being denied six months later.
The follow-up evaluation didn't dismiss the possibility of exposure to
DMMP or toxins during 20 years at Dugway as a cause of Davenport's
health problems. "However, in the absence of specific exposure data,
or defined events leading to medical attention, there is insufficient
data to definitely attribute a portion of his disease to the toxins,
"report said, noting that his "smoking history is sufficient to
explain all of his current abnor-mal-ities."
Dugway officials confirmed no record exists of the amount of DMMP to
which Davenport was exposed. Nor could they find Davenport's accident
or injury reports.
But Davenport has what he claims are copies of the reports made from
his personnel file. The reports are among the reams of other documents
filling a cardboard box in his home.
Davenport is appealing his workman's compensation denial.
He acknowledges smoking has contributed to his health problems. But he
contends that common sense indicates a spray in the face with a known
lung irritant and years of exposure to other agents and simulants
would account for at least part of his suffering, even if Dugway has
no record of the exact amount of what he was exposed to.
"I have inhaled it all. I've had tons of the stuff all over me. I ran
hundreds of tests for the Army and now (the government) won't accept
any responsibility for my health problems. They blame it on my
smoking, 100 percent," he said, the resentment clear in his voice. "If
I was so unhealthy and had a lung disease, why did they let a smoker
work on the (DMMP) test?" |
