Court Decides Against Downwinders

The Tri-City Herald has reported that a federal court of appeals has overturned rulings in favor of four "downwinders" who believe that their health problems developed as a result of radioactive emissions from Hanford. The court agreed that contractors may be liable for injuries to those who lived downwind of Hanford when it was manufacturing weapons-grade plutonium. However, hundreds of plaintiffs' cases may have been irreparably damaged by the appeals court's decision that a plaintiff who files suit more than three years after being diagnosed has exceeded the statute of limitations and is therefore ineligible for compensation.