Neurosis worth $75,000

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 7

Neurosis worth $75,000

I NZPA-Reuter Santa Fe i A former foundry worker (exposed for 30 years to radio-active materials at the laboratory w'here the first atomic bomb was developed has been awarded $U575,000 because he suffers from a neurotic fear he will die of cancer. Judge Fred T. Hensley I said Mr Ramon Martinez! was not required to demon- i strate a physical disability! resulting from handling! radio-active materials at the i Los Alamos scientific laboratory — only that he was unable to work because of |the neurosis. “The plaintiff suffers from 'anxiety neurosis,” Judge Hensley said. “This is an emotional disorder which is not organic in nature, that is, there is no physical basis for the symptoms.” Judge Hensley earlier ruled in favour of Mr Martinez, who is 57, in his suit against the University of California and its division laboratory, and detailed his reasons in the decision released this week.

Judge Hensley' said Mr Martinez, of Espanola, New Mexico, was injured in a mine explosion in the United States Army in 1945 and suffered “sfiell shock.” Mr Martinez recovered from the trauma, but it gave him “a predisposition or vulnerability to emotional stresses in the future.”

i At the laboratory' foundry ’Mr Martinez shaped objects made from radio-active materials while using and wearing protective equipment and clothing. “They often were ineffective to avoid inhalation of vapours and direct contact between his skin and clothing and radio-active materials,” Judge Hensley said. Mr Martinez observed fellow workers suffering cancer, other fatal diseases, and blindness. He underwent successful surgery for cancer of the eve in 1976 and. although the malignancy was arrested and he returned to w'ork, he worried that the disease would spread and kill him.

Mr Wilbert E. A. Maez,! the lawyer for the laboratory, said an appeal was Under consideration. He said the ruling could have wide implications for the nuclear i i industry.