About 30 people attended a Tuesday night meeting at the Beaverton City Library about the links between TCE exposure and certain cancers.

Many had worked at the former View-Master plant in Beaverton and suspected they saw the effects of the industrial degreaser,

, in their lives.

The crux of the conversation came down to: If TCE is proven to lead to cancer, what can former employees do with that information?

It seems that for many who attended the meeting, there aren't too many options of recourse right now, except to continue to shoulder healthcare costs and beware of future health problems.

Thomas Griffith, one of the administers of an unofficial

, said former workers could bring that knowledge to their doctor as a precaution. The study surveyed 633 workers, and of those, about 200 people self-reported that they had some type of cancer.

The most significant links suggested in the study, Griffith said, was the prevalence of kidney cancer in women.

In response, Sue Beard-Buccholz, 62, of Yamhill, said she told her doctor about TCE, but her doctor then remarked that he had never heard of health problems associated with the solvent.

Other implications could lead to more stringent regulatory standards, in particular for clean-up efforts, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These standards would depend on regional EPA offices and continuing reports and case studies of the chemical.

Jae Douglas, an epidemiologist with the Oregon Department of Public Health, said she has applied four times for government funding to conduct an official health study of former workers.

Douglas said two obstacles are hindering that state study: The state has an incomplete list of 13,300 workers of an estimated 20,000 who used to the work at the plant during its time of operation from 1959 to 2001. An official study would need a sample of nearly all workers in that time period, she said.

The second problem, is major budget cuts in federal government, Douglas said.

However, she added that the state may be able to use college students as interns to help track down and interview the thousands of employees.

"The study design is solid," Douglas said. "We just need serious boots on the ground."

Former workers who attended the meeting had other questions about health effects.

Beard-Buccholz said she gave birth to a son while she worked at the plant in 1975. Her son is the only one of her four children who has health problems, she said. People need to be better informed so they can pass information along to future generations who might be affected, Beard-Buccholz said.

In response to a question about legal action, Amanda Evans-Healy, founder of the advocacy group

, said while she could not give legal advice, she would encourage people to seek counsel from personal injury lawyers.

Evans-Healy was one of five families who settled lawsuits in May with Mattel. It took her two years to find a lawyer willing to take her case, she said.

"I did not take no for an answer, and I don't think anybody in this room should either," Evans-Healy said.

After the meeting, Steve Johns, 66, of Lake Oswego, said he was disappointed that he did not have more options of recourse. Johns said he worked in the paint shop of the plant around 1965, and he not only drank the water, but he smelled the vapors when he fished out buckets that fell into huge vats of the degreaser, he said.

His wife, Bessie Johns, 67, had breast cancer. She worked in the assembly area of the plant for 15 years.

"I want to have more proof that this in fact is what's causing all of this," Johns said.

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