Statement of Plaintiffs' Lead Counsel Re: Verdict Nuclear Litigation

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SPOKANE, Wash., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A Spokane jury in federal court today awarded damages to two plaintiffs who were babies at the time that the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Reservation produced plutonium in the 1940s. These plaintiffs developed thyroid cancer, which the jury found was caused by releases of Iodine-131 from Hanford. These verdicts totaled $544,759. There was a hung jury for a third cancer victim. Three hypothyroid cases were lost.

Statement of Louise Roselle (Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley Co., L.P.A.):
"This is a landmark decision. This is the first time that offsite
residents have proven that a Department of Energy nuclear weapons plant has caused their cancer. This jury's verdict is a very strong message to the government and to these corporate defendants. More than $60 million of taxpayers' money have been paid to the defendants' law firms. It's time for the government to stop spending taxpayer dollars to fight their own citizens."

Statement of Richard Eymann (Eymann Allison Fennessy Hunter Jones, P.S. of Spokane, WA):
"For 18 years the U.S. Department of Energy and these two corporations, after 40 years of cover-up, have insisted that their enormous releases of radioactive iodine from Hanford caused no harm to anyone. Now a 12-member jury, for the first time, has shown they are wrong. This jury has determined that Hanford's emissions caused thyroid cancer. The defendants gave it their best shot and lost the biggest issue in the trial. The fact that three other plaintiffs suffering thyroid disease did not see justice today does not change our very strong belief that Hanford also caused thyroid diseases among many hundreds of people. The science from places like Chernobyl teaches us more every day. The real lesson to take from today's verdict is that the time is now for our government to do the right thing by all of these victims, and offer fair and reasonable settlements."