Kansas City News Blog

​Chemical spills. Buried drums of unknown substances. Teflon poisoning. PCB drippings. Mold. These are just some of the cringe-inducing details included in a Department of Labor summary of information gathered from workers and former workers of Honeywell's Kansas City Plant, where non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons have been manufactured for the last 60 years (Honeywell is the subject of this week's Pitch feature story).

The roundtable meeting occurred in Overland Park on October 4-5, 2006, before representatives from the DOL's Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. The meeting included a wide range of workers, including machinists, electrical assemblers, carpenters, clerks, drafting specialists, welders, union officers, pipefitters, painters, OSHA instructors and plastic fabricators, just to name a few. They reported having worked with more than fifty toxic substances including benzene, beryllium, DDT pesticide, fiberglass, formaldehyde and "radioactive sources."

Some highlights from the meeting's notes:

• No worker reported having hazardous material training prior to the late 1990s.

• Machinists reported receiving machine safety instructions, e.g., not to wear long-sleeve shirts when using machine shop tools, but no hazardous material training except how to put labels on chemical containers.

• An electronic assembler stated that one-time lessons learned training was provided following an explosion in the mid-to-late 1980s in which five firefighters were killed.

• Protection against toxic material exposure was described as ranging from no protection and the wearing of Tyvek/paper protective clothing during certain production operations, to limited use of respiratory protection.

• A process engineer indicated that HEPA vacuums were not used at beryllium machine tools until around year 2000.

• A machinist indicated that respiratory protection was not required during machining until 2000, and that it was routine practice for machinists to work in the same clothes they wore home.

http://www.peaceworkskc.org/index.html

PeaceWorks members at a recent protest

​It gets even more disturbing in the section of meeting notes titled "Unusual Events:"

• Spills of unspecified materials were frequent;

• Trucks hauled materials without covers, allowing dispersion of the hauled substances;

• Trash trucks picked up garbage from process areas with free liquids, spilling the unknown liquids on aisle ways inside the facility;

• Hazardous materials were found in trash dumpsters;

• An area to the east of Department 20 was shut off to access in the late 1980s due to chemical fumes;

• A promethium incident;

• A Department 27 ductwork fire in the early 1980s;

• Cleanup of unknown materials from an employee parking lot.

• Smoking and drinking were permitted in machining areas.

Other events included:

• Fumes from chemical spills (unknown substance) in Departments 93 and 95 that resulted in shop door installation in the late 1980s.

• A "pit" used in the back of the plant was dug up and the sludge/material shipped offsite.

• One worker described jumping on various types of "chips" of unknown material to pack them into barrels.

• Another worker reported contracting "Teflon poisoning" around 1970 when working over the ovens in Department 64.

• A worker reported a chemical reaction when an unknown chemical was placed in a large Department 47 dip tank and an aluminum part was inserted.

• Wooden floors that absorbed chemicals were reported to have been used in several areas of the site.

• PCB drippings were described as being present throughout the plant.

• Use of Agent Z was reported to have turned worker badges and walls of the workplace yellow.

• Mold growth was reported in the plant cafeteria.