July 31, 2004

President George W. Bush

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C.

Dear President Bush,

We are members of the DOE/DOD Advisory Board to the University of Iowa former worker program that has been screening former workers of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) near Burlington, Iowa for radiation induced cancers and beryllium lung disease.

As you are aware, the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal -Year 2005 has passed the senate and the House of Representatives and is now going to a Conference Committee to work out differences. The Senate has two amendments to their version that the House did not add to theirs.

One is the Bond-Harkin-Amendent, that adds the former nuclear workers at the IAAP near Burlington, Iowa and two groups of atomic weapons workers from the Mallinkrodt facilities in Missouri to Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEIOCPA) .We strongly urge you and want you to support this amendment to part of the final bill.

We stated many reasons why we want this Amendment kept as part of the final bill in our letter that we are faxing to Representative Duncan Hunter and others and the other letter we are faxing to you along with signatures on a petition. We will have more signatures on a petition to fax to you in a few days. We are faxing a copy of our letter to Representative Hunter.

The second Amendment is about Part D of the EEIOCPA Act. It is about Workers Compensation for illnesses caused by worker exposure to chemicals, explosives, solvents, etc. These people need compensation and medical care, also. We want the Department of Labor to process these claims and we want them to be the payor for the Iowa and Alaska workers claims. We strongly urge you and want you to support this amendment to be part of the final bill.

As a Compassionate, Conservative Christian, it is our belief that you will want these two Amendments passed, for the benefit of the workers who put their lives 0on the line to help win the Cold War.

Some government officials do not realize what life was like in the Midwest during the 1950’s and 1960’s. As we have told officials from NIOSH, we never heard of cancer back then. We did not use farm chemicals or household chemicals. On farm fields we spread lime and manure. So, these workers must have gotten their exposure through working at the plants.

Life was different then. Rural electricity wasn’t in our area. People who lived in towns were self-sufficient. Paula lived in the country with no electricity and an ice box, no running water an outside hand pump to draw water, and a path to the outhouse instead of a bath. Lasca lived in town with only an electric cord hanging from the ceiling with a bulb in it. She also had a path to the outhouse instead of a bath. She also had to pump water.

Now we want to tell you how working at the IAAP has affected our family. I, Paula Graham, was 18 years old when I stared working at the IAAP in 1951, during the Korean Conflict. I also worked at the plant during the Vietnam War. I worked with many explosives, chemicals, metals, cut glass, etc, during the time I worked at the IAAP. I worked on the conventional lines, not the nuclear line. I take 20 pills a day and use an inhaler. I have chemical allergies. I had to stop working in 1994 because of this. The cost of medicine is horrendous. At times my life has been a living hell because of all my health problems.

Other members of our family also worked at the IAAP. Our sister who was 19 years old worked at the IAAP. In 1951, Paula and Lona both worked on Line 6. One day a worker dropped a tray of detonators on the cement floor and they blew. Metal and explosive blew into Loan’s legs. She was treated at the Plant Hospital for a couple of months. Later in the year Lona was security cleared to transfer to the Nuclear Line. She worked on the Nuclear Line until she quit working at the plant. She worked there during her first pregnancy. Her baby boy was born with deformed legs and severe anemia. The doctors wanted to break his legs and try to straighten them. Later, she had another baby boy who had severe anemia, too. She died on August 29, 1956, at the age of twenty-five years. I, Paula Graham, always thought that her work at the IAAP caused her death. Of course I couldn’t say anything about it because we weren’t supposed to talk about our work.

Our mother and father both worked at the IAAP during WWII and the Korea Conflict. Dad worked until 1962.Mom had numerous tumor surgeries and developed lymphoma in the 1960’s. She died in 1977. Dad died in 1979. He spent five weeks in the hospital before he died. Many of his organs were affected, his liver, pancreas, lungs, heart, etc.

I, Lasca Yerington’s, first husband worked about 10 years at the IAAP. After leaving the Plant he was unable to work and was on disability for years before he died. He worked on the Nuclear Line. He had cancer.

Of the immediate members of our family, who worked at the IAAP (mom, dad our sister and Paula), Paula is the only one still living. We were loyal Americans who worked to support our country and our armed forces.

We respectively request that you support the loyal Americans who did their part to help overcome the Soviet Union in the Cold War by sacrificing their health, lives and well being of their families. Support them by keeping these two amendments in the Defense Authorization Bill for FY 2005 and by signing it into law.

We want to thank you for your time and consideration of our cause. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Sincerely,

Paula Graham Lasca Yerington

1123 48^th Street, Apt. 6 3457 175^th Street

Fort Madison, Iowa 52627 Wever, Iowa 52658

Phone: 319-372-2388 Phone: 319-372-3600

Fax: paulaagraham@ hotmail.com Fax: donlascalc@interlink.net

Enclosures:

Copy of letter faxed to Representative Duncan Hunter and others.

Another letter with a petition and signatures.