From The Durango Herald (Jo Hanel):
Public Health Service official Duncan Holaday was in charge of the study, and he quickly found evidence that unventilated mines were exposing workers to cancer-causing levels of radiation. Vents would have helped lessen the danger. But the Public Health Service couldn’t get access to the mines without permission from mine owners. To get permission, inspectors promised the mine owners not to warn workers of radiation hazards, Holaday testified in a lawsuit brought by Navajo uranium miners. “You had to get the survey done, and you knew perfectly well you were not doing the correct thing … by not informing the workers,” Holaday said, according to the Openness Project report.
More energy policy nuclear coverage here.