NNSA NEWS RELEASE

Officials from the Department of Energy, the Worker Health Protection Program and several health-related organizations joined in Los Alamos last week to announce the expansion of medical screening and the addition of an early lung cancer detection program for former workers of Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.

Early lung cancer detection with low-dose CT scan will now be offered to former DOE workers at high risk of lung cancer, and medical screening exams are now available to all former DOE workers.

The DOE Former Worker Medical Screening Program (FWP) provides free medical screenings and evaluations for former DOE federal, contractor, and subcontractor workers to assess and address potential health risks and occupational diseases related to their work in the nuclear weapons complex. The newly offered early lung cancer detection program offers low dose CT scans to a subset of high-risk former workers. The FWP helps identify any work-related illnesses or conditions early, allowing for timely medical intervention and support.

The Los Alamos event followed a similar event held Wednesday, hosted by the New Mexico Building Trades Council’s in Albuquerque, home of Sandia National Laboratory. Among the speakers were Todd LaPointe, Director of DOE’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security, Dr. Steven Markowitz, co-director of the Worker Health Protection Program and Rebecca Trujillo of Española, a retired LANL employee and former outreach coordinator for the Former Worker Program in Española.

Trujillo retired from her position at LANL, where she worked on computers, in 1999 and went to work for the FWP in 2000 opening the Española office the same year. She said often sees clients when she’s out and about who thank her for assisting them in finding the medical help needed to save or extend their lives. She retired from the program in March 2023.

Occupational health experts at the City University of New York and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health independently administer the Worker Health Protection Program in New Mexico to provide objective medical evaluations, with funds provided by the DOE through a cooperative agreement.

The program offers medical evaluations to workers who may have been exposed to various chemical hazards and toxic substances and who may exhibit a range of adverse medical/health issues as a result of their past work in the nuclear weapons complex. Tests include medical and occupational history, comprehensive physical examinations, laboratory tests, a chest x-ray, breathing tests and hearing tests. A beryllium blood test and a special reading of the chest x-ray for occupational lung diseases are included. All test results are reviewed, interpreted, and communicated by occupational medicine physicians, with a medical re-screening offered every three years. Those with additional risk-factors who meet program eligibility guidelines are offered annual low-dose CT scans, a method proven to detect lung cancers before symptoms occur and treatment is likely to be successful.

For more information, visit the Worker Health Protection Program at https://www.worker-health.org/