A teen-age Carol Baker and her family came to Hanford in 1944 to be with her father - who worked on the ultrasecret project that created plutonium for the world's first atomic bomb.

She worked on site as a clerk for six months.

She swam in the Columbia River. Her family saw the trees marked: "Do not eat the peaches." But they ate them anyway.

Young Carol Baker soon moved away, but her family stayed.

In 1980, her mother died of cancer. Later, the Portland woman heard about Hanford's World War II and Cold War radioactive releases into the air and river.

She wondered.

About her mother.

About her two sisters with health problems.

About her own ovarian cancer.

Baker hopes to find some answers soon.

People exposed to Hanford's iodine 131 air emissions from 1944 to 1957 now can get estimates of the doses their thyroids received - tailored to each individual.

Thursday was the first day people could ask the Hanford Individual Dose Assessment Project how to get those estimates.

An estimated 400 to 500 people called the project Thursday to ask for information.

"I want to get to the bottom of it," Baker said. "This information should be in the public domain."

Her wish comes with this extension of the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project that studied how Hanford's Cold War releases were spread across the Mid-Columbia from 1944 to the early 1970s.

That initial effort calculated rough estimated doses of what about 1 million people could have received in Eastern Washington, Northeastern Oregon and Northern Idaho.

Most airborne emissions were iodine 131 released from 1944 to 1957. Since then, most releases went into the Columbia River.

The follow-up project that was ready Thursday was to fine-tune ways for health officials to calculate the iodine dose specific individuals likely received.

The most common pathway was through milk and fresh produce.

To get information on obtaining individual dose estimates, people can call 800-432-6242.

Downwinders who want to learn more will get two forms. The first is short. It looks at their ages, when and where they lived, and for how long. The second form could be a few pages long - or a few dozen. It will call for an extensive rundown of what a person ate and drank during the affected years. If someone lived in the area for a short time, the form will be short. A longtime resident will need awhile to fill out the form.

"I was really kind of surprised how easy it was," Baker said.

People struggling to remember what they ate a few decades ago can opt for a computer program that calculates the most likely foods, said John Erickson, director of the division of radiation protection for the Washington Department of Health.

Once the forms are done, the turnaround time is quick, he said.

There is no charge for the service, which is operated by the state health departments of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, along with the federal Centers for Disease Control.

On Thursday, Washington and Oregon health officials urged downwinders to move quickly.

The project's federal funds last through March 1999. If there is a lot of work left by then, more money will be sought, Erickson said.

The states will try to get people with high dose estimates into a Hanford medical monitoring program with follow-up checkups to be supervised by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said Dr. Maxine Hayes, acting health officer of Washington's health department.

Congress decided not to fund that program in 1998, although it plans to revisit the matter in 1999.

While dose estimates can be calculated, it is not known yet if iodine 131 exposures can be linked to thyroid cancer and other thyroid health problems.

A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center epidemiological study of Northwest downwinders exposed to iodine 131 is expected to answer that question. It is scheduled to be unveiled early next year.

If that study shows a high number of Hanford-related thyroid problems, "we will have to assess what the next steps will be," Hayes said.