PORTLAND - Federally funded medical exams on former Department of Energy workers will be phased out and replaced with a new program by Sept. 30, said a medical researcher involved in the current project.

Hanford Advisory Board member Tim Takaro told other members Thursday in Portland that DOE recently made the change.

Takaro is a doctor, a faculty member in the occupational medicine department at the University of Washington and a key participant in Northwest medical checkups on former DOE plutonium production workers.

The exams look for health problems related to exposure to beryllium, asbestos, noise and other industrial sources. And DOE is legally required to make sure the exams take place because some workers exposed to beryllium who contracted lung diseases may be eligible for federal compensation.

Takaro and Hank Hartley, outreach coordinator for the Hanford Building Trades Medical Screening Program, said they recently learned from DOE officials that funding problems are leading the federal agency to revise how the checkups are managed.

Takaro is concerned about plans to phase out the current program before DOE has figured out how to replace it since the backlog of people signed up for medical exams is greater than what can be handled by Sept. 30.

DOE officials with the program in Washington, D.C., could not be reached Thursday afternoon about the plan.

Hanford has at least 65 buildings identified as places where workers may have been exposed to beryllium. No current Hanford processes use beryllium, although workers could be exposed to it during cleanup work.

The program has tried to contact more than 70,000 former Hanford production workers, reaching about 30,000.

Almost 2,000 have been checked in the past five years, although momentum is picking up, Takaro said. Doctors have examined about 600 former Hanford production people so far this year.

Another 3,000 have signed up and are waiting for medical checks, but Takaro believes that's too many to be finished in the next 11 months.

In addition, the Hanford Building Trades Medical Screening Program has checked about 2,400 current and former Hanford construction workers in the past six years, Hartley said in a phone interview.

He said there are about 80,000 living current and former Hanford construction workers eligible for the checks. The program has contacted about 4,600.

So far, that program has identified two cases of chronic beryllium disease and 49 people who are extra sensitive to beryllium, Takaro said.

And 52 percent of the checked 2,400 people show some significant exposure to asbestos and 78 percent have shown some hearing losses, Hartley said.

The construction worker's program has a small waiting list of people wanting medical checks, he said.

"I feel there are a lot more men and women out there who deserve to go through this program," Hartley said.