June 2002 -- More than 5,000 residents of Washington, Oregon and Idaho known as "downwinders," who were originally excluded from a lawsuit that claimed their illnesses were due to exposure to Cold War radioactive releases from the Hanford plant, are now able to sue. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision was a reversal of a lower court ruling which had thrown out the suits, claiming that the secret releases from more than 50 years ago are responsible for various cancers, including thyroid, bone, breast and salivary cancers, as well as thyroid and other conditions.

Read the Seattle Times June 19, 2002 article.