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Energy Department says 13 workers in N.M. inhaled radioactive materials

 
Published Feb. 28, 2014

Washington

radioactive materials inhaled in N.M.

Thirteen employees who worked the night shift at a nuclear waste burial site after an underground leak are carrying radioactive materials in their bodies, but it's too soon to say how much health risk it poses, U.S. Energy Department officials said Thursday. The workers inhaled plutonium and americium, which if lodged in the body bombards internal organs with subatomic particles for the rest of the person's life. Calculating a lifetime dose will require several urine and fecal samples, taken over time, to determine the rate at which the body is eliminating the materials, said Joe Franco, manager of the Energy Department's Carlsbad, N.M., field office, which oversees operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

Los Angeles

Brown to run again for governor

Gov. Jerry Brown, already the longest-serving governor in California history, announced Thursday he would run for an unprecedented fourth term. Brown's re-election bid has been widely anticipated, and his announcement came with understated fanfare — in a Twitter posting with a simple picture of him taking out papers in the secretary of state's office.

Washington

Attorney general briefly in hospital

Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized for several hours Thursday and treated for an elevated heart rate after feeling lightheaded and short of breath, the Justice Department said. Holder, 63, was discharged after completing a series of tests. He walked out of the hospital on his own and was sent home to rest, a Justice Department statement said. A heart attack was ruled out.

Seoul, South Korea

N. Korea said to launch missiles

South Korea confirmed today that North Korea fired four short-range Scud missiles into its eastern waters a day earlier in an apparent attempt to protest ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang calls a rehearsal for invasion. The missiles landed in water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Seoul said.

White Plains, N.Y.

Jury deliberating in Kennedy case

A jury has begun deliberations in Kerry Kennedy's drugged driving trial. Jurors deliberated about 45 minutes Thursday before ending the day with no verdict. In closing arguments earlier in the day, the prosecution disputed her claim that she didn't know she was impaired after accidentally taking a sleeping pill.

New York

Deaths renew cedar chest recall

Lane Home Furniture urged people to check if they own a cedar chest it stopped making nearly 30 years ago, after two children recently suffocated to death inside one of them. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said a latch on the chest locks when closed and can't be opened from inside the chest. Lane originally recalled about 12 million chests in 1996 after other deaths, but they are still being bought at second-hand stores or handed down by families. The Lane and Virginia Maid chests were made between 1912 and 1987. Consumers should immediately remove the latch and call Lane toll-free at 1-800-327-6944 for replacement hardware.

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Times wires