As a patient advocacy group, The Kaiser Permanente Reform Committee (KPRC) advocates for patients and consumers alike. The primary tool it utilizes to educate the public on patient advocacy and other consumer related projects is its website otherwise known as The Kaiser Papers: kaiserpapers.org.

The Kaiser Permanente Reform Committee has been in existence for over a decade. It has maintained its educational website online for just as long. In January 2008, KPRC created a section on the Kaiser Papers website known as The Downey section: downey.kaiserpapers.info. Always the advocate for the public, the KPRC began to educate itself on the background and the projects surrounding the property. As with all other advocacy projects, it was KPRC’s intention to educate the public on the background of the Downey Property while also presenting material for the use of medical professionals and attorneys to assist the people that became ill while working on the properties.

Over a year ago, Stuart Lichter, the developer of the property, of IRG/Industrial Realty Group filed a defamation lawsuit against the Kaiser Papers; its owner Vickie Travis; Dina Padilla, a Congressional candidate; and two of the injured parties that became ill while working on the Downey Property.

In this lawsuit, the website, all of the Kaiser Papers, over 20,000 pages worth, was accused of presenting material that offended the developer.  It is the KPRC’s belief that all of the parties first amendment rights were violated when the parties were sued and demands were made to eliminate not only the Downey Section but the entire Kaiser Papers advocacy website.

During this time, the Kaiser Papers website was hacked over 15 times and other parties gained access to the Kaiser Papers website illegally and without authorization. The FBI has been involved and is still receiving information as of December 1, 2009. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been following the case for months.  The Kaiser Papers website and all related websites were vandalized with the majority of the illegal alterations taking place one day before the court hearings.

This week, the Plaintiff and Developer, Stuart Lichter, who refused to be deposed for 7 months, since May of 2009 and was ordered by the court to do so, suddenly withdrew the case with Prejudice.  The lawsuit dismissed With Prejudice indicates that they can never again bring the same accusations in a court of law against any of the involved parties or the Kaiser Papers websites.

Patient safety and consumer advocates have seen an increase in Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuits. Although the parties involved and the Kaiser Papers website prevailed in fighting against this attempt to violate the parties’ first amendment rights, it was done so at an extreme detriment to all of the parties involved. This victory may be a victory for advocates across the country that may also face a challenge to their civil liberties but it is still a hardship for Leonard Martin. Although Mr. Martin had initially prevailed against this harassing lawsuit, Mr. Lichter filed an appeal against him.  Consequently, this injured party, Leonard Martin who is very ill, now has a legal bill to defend his win in court where he had no bill before the appeal was filed.

You may read the court document which is a pdf download at:

http://downey.kaiserpapers.info/pdfs/Padilla Encl Endorsed Request for Dismissal.pdf

PDF Download at:  http://downey.kaiserpapers.info/pdfs/IRG Indictment CO.pdf

Kaiser Permanente opened a new hospital in November of 2009 in Downey, California, replacing their Kaiser Bellflower facility that was deemed structurally challenged by regional earth movement.  In short the building is cracked and part of it has to be replaced or it could fall down.

For over a decade Kaiser Permanente and various levels of Federal Government worked together to put this hospital on the site of a former NASA Base.  This NASA base was also part of a top secret military facility and for several decades highly  volatile and dangerous to human health materials were used and disposed of on the site.  It is pretty well recognized that at all bases of this nature, the waste products have for the most part simply been dumped on the ground or injected into the soil or water table.  This is not new to most people.  This is also documented in the various government created reports on the property, many of which are available on this web site.  The Downey Property was not any cleaner than any other similar military facility and the contamination is just as difficult to remove as at any of the other places.  The toxins do not go away over night, cannot be dug up and transported somewhere else and all attempts at clean up seem to be nothing more than bandaging a very long term problem.  Some new contaminant is always going to be surfacing.  Some overlooked project and resultant contamination is probably always going to be discovered and need clean up.  It is unlikely this problem will ever stop.

This property is no longer a top secret military facility.  Most of the top secret work as been declassified and is readily available to the public.  Anyone can find out what they did on that property if they look.  They did what every other similar place did and many still do.  During the World Wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War and I am certain in-between wars with developing new things for potential wars.  Downey was a central hub for several projects.  It was a Rockwell and Boeing Facility.  Radioactive materials of which there are many reported are probably the least concerns because of the volume of other materials.   It was what it was and while it can be glorified by those that worked there and history can record the new things that were discovered and created on the property it will never erase the fact that they had chemical accidents which brought harm and death to humans and dumped and injected chemicals and other toxins into the soil and groundwater materials that they should have disposed of in a more responsible manner.

So right now, the government says this property is clean.  They claim to the public that it is safe enough to put a hospital on the property.  All the people that have complained about becoming ill while working on all parts of this large piece of property, of which the hospital is only on a small segment of; their illnesses must only be coincidence.  Because the government says so.  The human biomonitoring that is also taking place must also be only a coincidence and have nothing to do with the contaminants that the government claims are cleaned up.

Feel free to peruse the materials found on this website.  They are intended to assist those that are ill and need some answers.  They are on this site to help medical professionals explain mysterious to the patients diseases.  They are here to help medical professionals learn what their patients might have been exposed to and thereby avoid medical testing that wastes time and can focus on testing that is more productive because they will have an idea what to look for.