Oct. 3, 2000
Questions of radioactivity still surround mystery of man's death in 1953
http://www.star-telegram.com:80/news/doc/1047/1:BPAGE37/1:BPAGE371003100.html
By The Associated Press

HOUSTON -- Mary Sheffield is still plagued with decades-old questions about why her father died suddenly at work, supposedly of a heart attack.

It just doesn't seem to be an adequate answer, the 60-year-old said.

Three weeks ago, she learned that the Southeast Texas plant where Harold Sheffield worked for two years and another in Texas City were involved in a then-secret federal project. The plants were producing weapons-grade uranium to help America win the nuclear arms race.

The radioactive materials -- not a mysterious heart attack -- seem the likely culprit for her father's death, Mary Sheffield said. But neither plant nor government officials wanted to believe that.

"I don't want to imply that anyone killed my father," she told the Houston Chronicle in Tuesday's editions. "I just want to understand. I want them to explain to me in detail what happened -- that's all I want.

"There were always so many lingering questions," she said. "From day one, we have felt like this was a cover-up."

Harold Sheffield had left his Pasadena home on a Saturday morning for his laboratory technician job at the Mathieson Chemical Corp. Later that afternoon -- Sept. 5, 1953 -- Harold Sheffield suddenly collapsed on the sidewalk near the building and was rushed to a hospital. By the time his family got there, he was dead.

Local health officials say the sites pose no threat today. But that may not have been the case for those who worked at the now-defunct plants or lived near them in the 1950s.

The newspaper's review of 100,000 pages of government records shows that hundreds of federal and private labs and plants around the country may have exposed thousands of workers and dozens of communities to potential health risks.

During a Houston briefing last week, U.S. Department of Energy officials acknowledged that the government has no idea how many may have come in contact with radioactive byproducts. They also were unaware how and where the companies disposed of the waste.

The Pasadena and Texas City plants each produced at least 50 pounds of uranium for the Atomic Energy Commission -- the Pasadena plant from 1951 to 1952, and the Texas City Chemicals plant between 1952 to 1956. The facilities were used in a pilot project to extract uranium from the phosphate ore that's used to manufacture fertilizer.

The Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took over the Atomic Energy Commission in 1974. In 1977, the government began surveying the Pasadena and Texas City sites for radiation contamination.

The survey found above-normal levels of radiation in the soils at the Texas City plant, which was closed in the 1970s.

The government also found and removed "small amount" of radioactive material under a sink drain at the Pasadena site about 20 years ago. Agrifos Fertilizer, which now owns the property, is thinking about tearing the unused building down, company officials said.