The Tri-Cities has regained some say on federal research and policies related to Hanford health issues.

A federal subcommittee criticized for ending the terms of all its Tri-City members earlier this year has found four new Tri-Citians to help advise the federal government on Hanford health issues.

Those joining the Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee include Dr. Larry Jecha, scientist Darrell Fisher, minority advocate Daniel Carter and Marlene Nesary, a journalist and teacher.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Lynne Stembridge said only the paperwork needs to be completed on their appointments.

The federal government was "first and foremost looking to rebalance Tri-City representation and have strong ties into the community," Stembridge said.

That will be particularly important as the government starts to provide services such as thyroid monitoring to those who may have been harmed by past releases of radioactive iodine into the air around Hanford.

Gerald Woodcock, who represented the Eastern Washington Section of the American Nuclear Society on the subcommittee until he was removed in January, said he was generally satisfied with the new appointments.

He said he was particularly pleased Fisher was named to the subcommittee.

"He's been involved in the health physics society for a long time and on the cutting edge of cancer research," Woodcock said.

In January, Woodcock and five other members from the Tri-Cities on the 19-member subcommittee were told their terms would not be renewed. Two others not living in the Tri-Cities were also asked to step down. Of the new members appointed, just one was from the Tri-Cities.

The dismissals "were inappropriate and insensitive," the six dismissed members wrote in a letter of protest to the federal agencies making the appointments -the Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

They were particularly upset that while Tri-City members were dismissed, three people with what they saw as conflicts of interest had their terms on the subcommittee extended four years.

The members to be appointed to the board should fill some of those gaps on the board:

Fisher of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory received the Tri-City Engineer of the Year Award in 1997 for his pioneering work with medical isotopes.

Carter, a former Hanford manager, received the Tri-City's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award in 1997.

Jecha is the health officer of the Benton Franklin District Health Department.

Nesary grew up in the Tri-Cities and has recently returned after living in California and Montana. She has worked on health care issues.

More people are expected to be appointed to the subcommittee in 1999.