Sick Cold War workers rally for compensation

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP - Former Cold War workers and their supporters rallied in Oak Ridge on Wednesday to demand help for workers made ill from exposure to hazardous and radioactive materials in the government's nuclear weapons facilities.

The U.S. Department of Labor responded with new data showing 41,322 people have received more than $3.8 billion in compensation and medical benefits since the department took over responsibility for these claims in 2004. That includes $1.4 billion to 12,925 claims involving people who worked in Oak Ridge.

"We are, in fact, doing an excellent job," program director Shelby Hallmark told The Knoxville News Sentinel in an interview from Washington.

About 75 people attended the rally in this city created by the secret bomb-building Manhattan Project in World War II and that continues to host one of this country's major nuclear weapons factories.

Activist Janet Michel, who suffers from autoimmune disease after working in Oak Ridge's former uranium enrichment plant, championed the compensation program a decade ago and reforms six years later.

But she says changes are still needed. "There's too much death and there's too much denial," she said of aging claimants.

"It's still a contentious situation when you file a claim," added another former worker, Harry Williams, with the Coalition for a Healthy Environment.

The Alliance for Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups, which includes Williams' coalition, is pushing to broaden the eligibility criteria for sick workers and survivors.

They would increase the number of radiation-linked cancers that qualify for compensation and do away with controversial "dose reconstructions" to determine if claimants' exposures were severe enough to qualify.

The Department of Labor says it has cleared about 13,000 cases filed since 2001 involving cancers caused by workplace radiation or beryllium and has fewer than 8,000 dose reconstruction decisions pending.

Another 31,000 cases involving illnesses caused by toxic chemicals or other non-radioactive materials should be resolved by September, the department said in a statement.

"We want to be fair and sympathetic," Hallmark said. "It's hard for the public to realize that we have to make hard decisions and say, 'Widow Jones, we're sorry your husband's conditions fall outside the rubric that Congress gave us.'"

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Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com