Subject: #/02/2002 Sick Worker's
------------------------
03/02/2002Sick workers’ aid plan gets D-
By Joe WalkerSun Business Editor An activist group says a new program
to help sick nuclear workers
is too
narrow and doesn’t provide adequate compensation. The group, headed
by Vina Colley, a former
uranium enrichment worker at
Piketon, Ohio, has compiled a "report card" giving the program a D-
grade.
Colley delivered the information Thursday to Labor Secretary Elaine
Chao in
Washington, D.C. Among other things, the report card claims last year’s
Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Plant Act: -- Does not cover enough
illnesses, such as those from
exposure to heavy
metals, fluorides and other chemicals. The law provides compensation
for
various cancers related to radiation exposure, and for beryllium- and
silica-related diseases. -- Provides an inadequate lump sum of $150,000,
particularly when compared
with the terrorist victims’ fund. The law also affords medical benefits.
-- Has inequities because some
cancer victims’ claims have been denied or
delayed by the Department of Labor’s final adjudication board. "DOL
appears
to be finding loopholes to deny claims due to semantics, poor records
and
the discounting of expert diagnosis," which hurts credibility. -- Has
other problems, notably
troublesome cases that require reconstructing
job exposures or fall under state workers’ compensation programs. U.S.
Rep. Ed Whitfield,
R-Hopkinsville, who helped push the legislation,
declined comment Friday on the group’s claims. Shelby Hallmark, head
of
worker compensation programs for the U.S. Department of Labor, said
the
programs are bound by congressional rules. "Obviously, those are decisions
Congress made for us," he
said. "I think
it’s widely known there are lots of other toxic materials that were
used in
the nuclear complex, but Congress chose not to cover them." Instead,
proposed Department of Energy
regulations address conditions not
covered by federal compensation. If a doctors’ panel finds that such
a
condition arose from plant employment, DOE will not oppose a state
workers’
compensation claim and in some instances will tell its contractors
to do the
same, Hallmark said. He said the Department of Labor has reached final
decisions on 1,875 claims,
out of which 121 have been denied. So far, to expedite the program,
the
cases have been those easiest to decide, which means subsequent claims
may
be more contestable, Hallmark said. "We try to do the very best we
can, and people who don’t receive
the
benefits are obviously not happy," he said. "No cases have been taken
to
court, but that is one avenue people have when we deny a case." Don
Throgmorton, a former 18-year
employee of the Paducah uranium enrichment
plant, said he is soliciting signatures on a petition to support broadening
federal law. He can be reached at 554-6638. Although Throgmorton is
disabled and has filed a
Department of Labor claim,
conflicting results of several beryllium-disease tests cloud his chances
of
collecting. He said he has early-stage emphysema and a spot on one
lung,
which are signs of the disease. Throgmorton said he is concerned about
many borderline workers like
himself
and many others exposed to substances not reflected by the list of
compensated diseases. "I think if they can send money overseas to guys
like Arafat, they can take
care of guys like us," he said. "They want you to play dead and roll
over,
and I’m not going to do that. I’m sick and tired of it."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 15 edition of the Pike County News Watchman.
Waverly, Ohio
Van Rose
NW Staff Reports
Complications continue to surround the Energy
Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP),
established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2000 to
compensate sick government employees or their family members.
Congressman Ted Strickland, who helped create
the EEOICP,
believes DOE has erected barriers to nuclear worker compensation,
specifically under Subtitle D of the program.
The department, by law, is required to establish
a physician's
panel to review each employee's work history and medical records
and estimate their exposure to hazardous conditions.
DOE's proposed rules and regulations violate
Congressional intent,
according to Strickland, by allowing plant contractors to contest
the
findings of the physician's panel through DOE's Office of Hearings
and Appeals.
"Congress laid out clear and unambiguous guidelines
relating to
this program that DOE simply continues to ignore," said Strickland.
"Their obstruction does nothing more than deny compensation
to a
group of patriots who served their country during the Cold War
and
are paying a serious price with their health - and in many cases,
their lives."
Other reported problems include:
• Allowance of contractors to
be reimbursed for legal costs of
contesting all issues, except causation
• Requiring physician's panels to apply
widely differing standards
for causation depending on the state where the worker was
employed, and
• Requiring claimants to bring a medical
diagnosis to the
physician's panel that offers evidence of workplace causation,
which
may not be possible due to DOE's incomplete employee exposure
records.
"The intent was for the burden of proof to
be on the employer, not
the employee," said Mark Lewis, director of the Workers' Health
Protection Program. "Now they can contest it. I
don't know how it got
twisted around like this."
This is because the EEOICP administrator -
the U.S. Department of
Labor - may be used to causation being placed on the victim
instead
of on the government, said Glenn Bell of Oak Ridge, Tenn., a
former
nuclear worker and supporter of an expanded compensation
program.
"I expected a lot of loopholes and a lot of
confusion since it is a new
program," he said.
Some workers who fall under a "special cohort,"
suffering from
beryllium disease, radiation or chronic silicosis covered by
the
program and not required to prove that it was caused by
employment at the plant, are having their claims approved more
quickly and easily.
Those not included in the cohort seem to "hit
a brick wall" when
their claims reach Washington D.C., told Bell. But even
workers in
the special cohort are still running into problems.
"If we can't get the easy cases through, everyone
else is in trouble,"
he said.
Congressman Strickland joined four House colleagues
last
Thursday in writing a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
concerning DOE draft regulations related to implementation of
the
program.
"The law sought to remove procedural barriers
to compensation
claims by utilizing DOE's power of procurement with its contractors
to pay legitimate worker compensation claims," said the letter.
"Under (DOE's proposed) rule, workers will never receive the
justice
that Congress - on a bipartisan basis - had intended for diseases
and disability incurred while working at DOE facilities."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESS CONFERENCE RELEASE
National Nuclear Workes for Justice.
April 16, 2002
The U.S. Congress approved a Bill that would
compensate sickend atomic weapons’ plant "veterans"
who were deemed "courageous" by their President.
Six hundred and fifty five million dollars was "set
aside" to compensate these sickened workers.
By April 2000, the government leaders admitted
liability for their nuclear industry caretakers’
negligence and abuse that caused death, disease, and
suffering for untold numbers of workers and
survivors.
An amendment to the Bill was sponsored by Senator
Pete Domenici, a Republican who represents
New Mexico which passed by a margin of 99-0.
The U.S. Department of Justice administrators are
the adjudicators of the the process.
In the past, payments made to uranium miners
and downwinders, who were unknowingly exposed to
Nevada’s above-ground atomic tests, had been
delayed. The government sponsered program had run
out of money. Before they died, many workers
held IOUs distributed by the government agency after
applying for the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation
Act provisions. The program offered
$100,000. The Act was amended in 2000 to allow
the workers to apply for $50,000 under the atomic
weapons’ plant "Energy Employees’ Occupational
Injury Compensation Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) as
amended by Congress in the year 2001.
One notable feature of the EEOICPA legislation
was to establish a ways and means to petition for all
"Special Exposure Cohort" employees exposed
to abnormally dangerous radioactive and hazardous
material to qualify for the provisions of
the Act. The meritorious uranium miners and Nevada Test Site
(NTS) qualifiers should be recognized. However,
the EEOICPA only meant to recognize these
"Special Exposure Cohort" workers should receive
more money than they have already received. The
U.S. Department of Energy Labor (DOL) and
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are suppose to
"help" the EEOICPA qualifiers or survivors
with their applications. These workers developed the
same kinds of diseases that the miners and
Nevada Test Site workers developed such as related
cancers and renal cancers/diseanse. Yet, most
of the compensation is being awarded to those
workers who come under the RECA regulation.
The EEOICPA authorizes the U.S. Secretary of
Health and Human Services (HHS) to add other
classes of employees to the "Special Exposure
Cohort" list.
For instance, Paul Smith and James Gardner,
electricians from the Portsmouth site, had their voice
boxes surgically removed. Because the cancer
was removed, the DOL staff disqualified their claims.
Page 1
Portsmouth site worker, Janet Tanner from Massieville,
Ohio, was disqualified because her renal
cancer is not recognized.
Apparently, Congress and the DOL believe that
only uranium miners are at risk to contract the
disease and not all uranium workers.
Mr. Samson, who worked at Hanford, is disfigured
when cancer was surgically removed from his
nose after he inhaled radioactive material
on the job. The cancer may have metatisis characteristics.
The Hanford worker’s claim is on hold pending
discovery of personnel files that the DOE Richland,
Washington records keepers claim they cannot
locate. Ironically, certain Hanford discovery has
been released to Mr. Samson. Other coworkers
have affirmed he worked for J.A. Jones construction
- an entity that contracted at Hanford for
zion years until the DOE terminated their service. Other
Hanford qualifiers have been dismissed for
the same reason.
George Johnson of Arizona was denied survivor
benefits because, again, the DOE record keepers
could not find his father’s personnel records.
George refused to give up when he requested and
received his father’s employment records from
the U.S. Social Security Administration.
James Vernon Gardner, a retired electrician
from the Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, was
employed for eighteen year at the Piketon
Uranium Enrichment Plant. He was forced to retire and
was placed on disability July 1, 1995, because
of the diagnosis of hypoplarynx carcinoma - a type of
cancer. On October 22, 1994, his voice box
was surgically removed. The DOL caseworkers claimed
because his cancer was on the outside of his
larynx; and because he doesn’t qualify as a "Special
Exposure Cohort" under the EEOICPA regulation,
he shall not be considered eligible for
compensation. Jim received a letter November
5, 2001, from the Cleveland, Ohio DOL caseworker
that the cancer was not a compensatible "Special
Exposure Cohort" medical condition because it
was on the outside of the larynx. Jim’s file
was forwarded to the National Insitute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) for dose reconstruction
to determine if this type of cancer was "as likely
as not" related to his employment. Findings
of fact affirms, employee dosage records are altered and
the non-credentialed NIOSH staff of three
intend to use the records provided by the DOE, only. The
NIOSH staff of three expect to process over
8,000 applicants using their uncertainty software known
as "IREP" methodology. The methodology has
only been peer reviewed by the DOL scientists. Like
many other mertorious claimants, Mr. is forced
to seek legal counsel which he cannot afford.
The COLD WAR continues after six decades have
elapsed since the Manhattan Project was
launched because the United States was in
a race with the Germans to produce a weapon capable
of mass destruction. The victims are "courageous"
Americans who must concede to their own
government’s demands. This domestic "Axis
of Evil" encounter should never have caused thousands
of citizens’ death, disease, and suffering.
Call Vina Colley for more information about
NNWJ 740-259-4688 vcolley@earthlink.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bracing for Yucca Mountain's Nuclear Forever
Deep Time, Short Sight
by R.C. Baker
In 1945, as the first atomic bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert, one of its creators, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, recalled a line from Hindu scripture: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This being America, though, someone smelled a profit behind this almost biblical source of power—nine years later, the Atomic Energy Act allowed private companies to build commercial nuclear reactors, with the promise of "energy too cheap to meter." But the bill for three generations' worth of nuclear power is now coming due. The Department of Energy is proposing to transport highly radioactive material from all over America to a nuclear waste dump inside Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Governor Kenny Guinn estimates construction of the facility will eventually cost more than $60 billion. He and most other Nevadans (with the exception of some local brothel owners, who predict a free-spending clientele among the army of workers expected at the site) are not happy that their state, already host to the radioactive leavings of decades of nuclear weapons tests, would receive 6 billion curies more. (By comparison, the accident at Three Mile Island released 15 curies.)
In an interview, Steven Frishman, a geologist with Nevada's Nuclear Waste Task Force, talks about "downwinders," people who suffered deadly, long-term effects from the weapons testing, and how the federal government "knew it was dangerous and they weren't telling people." Now, he says, that same government, along with the nuclear industry, is "spinning the site," using "extraordinary levels of optimism and trying to convince people that it's safe because they have a political need to do it, not because it's actually a safe thing to be doing."
The problem? The waste is so lethal that by law it must be completely isolated for a minimum of 10,000 years. But many scientists (including a panel from the National Academy) dismiss that time span as a bureaucratic convenience. Others point out that much of the waste (mostly spent fuel rods from commercial and military reactors) will contain uranium, plutonium, and myriad other "iums" that will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Nevada's concern is that the site is not sound enough geologically to keep the waste from eventually getting into the groundwater, air, and food chain. DOE's own best case shows no violation of current radiation dose standards for roughly 100,000 years, but, as Governor Guinn's recent letter to Congress points out, DOE's computer models "have an uncertainty factor of 10,000."
Still, the Yucca Mountain site is heading for a final, too-close-to-call vote in the Senate, and if it is approved, the maw of bureaucracy must be served. The Environmental Protection Agency has decreed that some kind of marker be erected to deter human beings from entering, drilling, digging, mining, or doing anything that would disturb the site or release its contents into the environment for the 10-millennium regulatory period.
So artists, architects, and engineers must grapple with a time span at the outer limits of cultural imagination, a period that must take into account climatic change (will the brutal desert currently surrounding Yucca become wetter in a few thousand years?) and geology (there have been 600 earthquakes of 2.5 or greater magnitude in the area since 1982). And then there is humanity: As Frederick Newmeyer, president of the Linguistic Society of America, points out, any language becomes "unintelligible to the descendants of the speakers after the passage of between 500 and 1000 years." (Read any Chaucer lately?) So how do we warn away people whose language, society, and beliefs we'll never know, who may have undergone revolutions, disasters, wars, or epidemics right out of The Stand?
The challenge of communicating danger over vast reaches of time was taken up by an exhibition earlier this year at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, entitled "Universal Warning Sign: Yucca Mountain." The organizer of the show, Joshua Abbey, wanted to use art to educate the public about the long-term hazards of the proposed dump. He received entries from around the world, many of which used the trefoil symbol for radiation, designed in 1946. But the meanings of symbols change drastically over time and from culture to culture. The swastika, long revered in many parts of the world as a symbol of good fortune, is metaphorically radioactive in others—it will get you jail time in Germany.
The winning entry illuminates the problem of communicating tens, hundreds, and thousands of generations into the future. Ashok Sukumaran proposes to seed all of Yucca Mountain with self-replicating, genetically engineered, cobalt-blue cactuses, using this unnatural contrast against the ochre of the desert as a living warning. Clearly, though, this painted desert would be hauntingly beautiful and alluring, and might draw people rather than repel them. And there's the rub: Art and architecture act as our highest expressions of humanity, not as shouts of danger. Libby Lumpkin, the founding curator of the art collection in Steve Wynn's Bellagio Hotel, said one of the reasons she was interested in being a juror was "it was a show that no one could succeed at."
Not that the government hasn't been on the case. The template for the eventual marker at Yucca Mountain was conceived in the early '90s for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico, the eternal (or so the DOE hopes) subterranean home of the detritus of the nuclear arms race. Among other things interred there are "contaminated laboratory piping, and booties and masks," says Michael Brill, an architectural theorist and professor at SUNY Buffalo. He led one of two teams of linguists, artists, engineers, archaeologists, and other experts, who were charged by Sandia National Laboratories to design a method of keeping future Indiana Joneses out of this real temple of doom. "Passive Institutional Controls," meaning monuments impervious to harsh climate and sandblasting winds, are mandated, because even the federal government has to acknowledge it might not be around in a few hundred years, never mind millennia hence.
Right off, Brill's panel discussed leaving "great piles of this deadly shit above grade" so that anyone wandering near the site would become ill and die. The panel roundly rejected using corpses as "BEWARE" signs, however, due to inter-generational responsibilities: Our electric lights today shouldn't cause death or mutants tomorrow. So Brill's team concentrated on archetypal images of danger, things that are hardwired in all of us regardless of culture, and came up with massive, square-mile complexes such as Landscape of Thorns (50-foot-high concrete spires with sharp points jutting out at all angles), Forbidding Blocks (black, gargantuan, irregular cubes of stone, too narrowly spaced and hot to provide shelter), and other "menacing earthworks," all designed to convey "poisoned and parched and dead land, a place that's really no place." Anti-art, in other words. Buried granite chambers with warnings in the official languages of the UN were also planned, along with space to re-carve them in whatever languages evolve over deep time.
DOE has opted for a cheaper design: a 33-foot-high earthen berm, half a mile square, studded by granite monoliths inscribed with warnings and pictograms of radiation danger. It has incorporated the experts' ideas for an information kiosk; high vantage points from which to survey the entire danger area; radar-reflective trihedrals; and small buried markers to warn against excavation or digging. Still, nothing will be built at the New Mexico waste plant until 2083, nor at Yucca Mountain until sometime in the 24th century. Transporting, storing, and finally sealing off such lethal material is a thorny, fraught process that we will not live to see completed.
"Art is long; life is short," goes the old saying, but neither can cope with the insidious longevity of radiation. We can only hope our distant, unknowable descendants will understand that their ancestors crossed a line in this century—that our mummy's curse is not metaphorical or metaphysical, but very much the real thing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SRS workers sick, but not bitter
Many employees who worked during the Cold War say their illness is
price of freedom
By SAMMY FRETWELL
Staff Writer
SYCAMORE - Gordon Johns went to work every day for 33 years, proud that he was part of the nation's effort to win the Cold War.
To him, cleaning the Savannah River Site was as important as the massive facility's primary job: making plutonium and tritium for use in atomic weapons.
"The Savannah River Site played a very important part in security for the entire world," Johns said. "I have some pride knowing I might have had a small part in that.''
But after retiring in 1984, Johns began suffering blackouts. He later was diagnosed with colon cancer, a disease that kills 50,000 Americans a year. From there, his health steadily deteriorated.
By spring of this year, he was bedridden, coughing and gasping for breath.
On March 30, two days after telling his story to The State, Johns died at his home in rural Allendale County.
For former employees at SRS, Johns' struggle is painfully familiar.
Like Johns, they have vivid stories of life-threatening illnesses suffered after working at the nuclear weapons complex near Aiken.
More than 2,000 are seeking federal compensation for diseases they say resulted from their work. The government admitted during the Clinton Administration that its nuclear weapons program probably is liable for some diseases.
Illnesses include colon cancer, lung cancer, breathing disorders, kidney diseases and lymphoma. Relatives of some dead workers said their loved ones nearly starved because of complications from cancer, federal records show.
Many of the sick said they were glad to help the government win the international arms race with the Soviet Union.
It was the price of freedom, they said.
"I would do it again,'' said Edgefield resident Bill Brunson, a retired SRS worker who struggles to breathe.
'YOU DIDN'T ALWAYS REALIZE'
Still, some former workers said they were bothered that they didn't know more about the dangers of working at SRS.
With more information from the government, they might have known how to better cope with radiation and toxic chemicals, Johns said before his death.
"You didn't always realize'' the danger, he said, "until after you ran into contact with it.''
The Savannah River Site's nuclear weapons mission halted after the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ended in 1991.
Today, as the government looks to process plutonium and fabricate more nuclear weapons material at SRS, the legacy of its past remains.
Most of the site's $1.5 billion annual budget is spent managing and cleaning up deadly waste. The facility is one of the world's most contaminated atomic weapons sites.
All told, more than 100,000 people worked at the Savannah River Site after it opened in the early 1950s, Department of Energy spokesman Bill Taylor said. During its peak, the site employed more than 25,000 people at one time, he said.
Taylor said the government now acknowledges that nuclear weapons sites were a threat to their workers. Although SRS stressed safety, he said, some workers became ill after toiling at the 310-square-mile complex of nuclear reactors, support buildings and burial grounds.
"These people did an important job for our national defense,'' Taylor said. "Those who did receive occupational illnesses or injuries are why a program was set up to compensate them.''
Nationally, people have filed more than 26,000 claims seeking compensation of up to $150,000 because of exposure to radiation and some toxic materials at nuclear weapons sites.
So far, virtually none of the $199.6 million paid in claims has gone to SRS workers because it has taken time for the government to get the entire program off the ground, federal officials say.
As those seeking compensation wait for their checks, they have said plenty about life at SRS.
Public meetings with the U.S. Department of Energy the past two years brought overflow crowds of people who detailed their struggles and asked for government help.
NUCLEAR SPILL
Brunson, among those seeking compensation, said he was exposed to an array of contaminated materials during his 30 years at SRS. The materials ranged from asbestos to radioactive substances.
Once, he helped mop up a spill of contaminated water not far from one of the complex's atomic reactors. Because of the water's radioactivity, employees could work on the cleanup for just a limited amount of time.
"Just about everybody on the plant was involved,'' said Brunson, a former maintenance worker. "It took a long time to go through all that.''
Brunson said he was routinely exposed to asbestos that he believes now causes him to gasp for breath, particularly when the weather is hot and muggy.
Some of the exposure came from taking asbestos out of buildings and putting new supplies in, said Brunson, a non-smoker.
Asbestos, an unusually resilient material, was used for decades in industry to insulate and fireproof buildings. Federal studies now show that it can cause cancer and a lung disease known as asbestosis.
Today, Brunson must use air filters, inhalers and mentholatum to help bring oxygen into his lungs. At night, it sometimes is difficult for Brunson to catch his breath while in bed.
"Breathing is my biggest problem now,'' he said. "Some nights I have to get up and sit in my chair.''
Medical experts who examined Brunson said his breathing problems could be the result of working at SRS, records show. He has been diagnosed with asbestosis.
It didn't used to be that way. Brunson said he once took walks, swam and jogged to stay in shape. Now, he can do little more than work sporadically in his yard.
"When you can't breathe, you kind of lose everything,'' he said.
Still, Brunson doesn't regret the work he did at SRS.
A bleeding disorder kept him out of the military and that always bothered his conscience, he said.
"I couldn't join the service and I felt like it was part of my life to help out,'' the 84-year-old Brunson said.
BREATHING MACHINE
When he has difficulty drawing oxygen into his lungs, Robert Lee Kelly uses a machine to help him breathe.
Kelly said it's not unusual to use the special inhaler three to four times per day.
He, too, believes exposure to toxic chemicals at SRS caused his condition. Sometimes, asbestos was so thick during maintenance work that he could see it in the air.
During a public meeting in December 2000, Kelly told Department of Energy officials the chemicals he was exposed to were so bad, "you couldn't hardly breathe while you were working.''
"I've been having a lot of sickness - shortness of breathe, my bones aching,'' Kelly said in an interview with The State. "But I'm still dragging along. I'm sure we got a hold of some of those chemicals down there.''
Still, Kelly said he had good years at SRS, first as a construction worker and later as an operations employee.
During the early 1950s, Kelly said he brought home $200 to $250 a week, far better than the 50 cents a day farmers in the area made.
Kelly, who grew up on the property where SRS now stands, said he's not upset with the government for the illness he must now deal with.
"I'm not angry,'' the 72-year-old Aiken resident said. "At the time, I needed a job and I was glad for the job. We raised three children and put them through college. I bought me a home out of it.''
GLOWING PIPES
Robert Eley, 78, recalls the night a large explosion of radioactive material killed a live oak tree on the SRS property. He also remembers being burned by acid at the site.
And, Eley said, there were years when he was subjected to heavy doses of radiation from his work as a nuclear reactor operator.
Now, Eley suffers from asbestosis because of exposure to air pollutants at SRS, he said. The affliction causes shortness of breath.
"I got sick because I worked there,'' said Eley, a Twin City, Ga. resident.
On trips with his wife, he must haul portable air tanks with him so he can breathe easily.
"It's a damned nuisance,'' Eley said. "A lot of times I have the notion to say, 'To hell with it,' and go ahead and die.''
In addition to breathing problems, Eley said he suffers numbness in his left hand from what he believes was exposure to radiation at SRS.
Mervin Russell, who has colon and lung cancer, said he remembers working around steel pipes so radioactive that they glowed "like a lightbulb.'' He retired from SRS in 1981 after 30 years on the job.
The pipes were submerged in pools of water inside SRS buildings. Periodically, he and his co-workers hauled the pipes out of the water so other workers could repair them.
Today, he has no idea what purpose the pipes served.
Russell also had to haul unknown radioactive material in trucks to a burial ground at SRS.
"We weren't told too much," said Russell, a 78-year-old Bamberg resident. "What we did was supposed to be confidential.''
Russell said he's not bitter about the work. But he said the cancers have slowed him down -particularly the lung cancer.
That's bothersome because he never smoked, Russell said. Simple daily activities can be taxing now, he said. He is unable to tie his shoes without breathing hard. And he no longer has the breath to sing, a once favorite pastime, he said.
"I can't do anything,'' Russell said. "I just don't have any wind.''
'FOR YOUR COUNTRY'
Before he died, Gordon Johns said he wished SRS had paid more attention to worker exposure during the hey day of nuclear arms production.
Johns remembered when he would be allowed to clean tritium-contaminated areas without the proper equipment. He also was exposed to asbestos as thick as snow, as well as to freon and other toxic chemicals.
Those materials put him on his death bed, he said.
"I think we ought to have been debriefed every day about what went on,'' he said, adding that the experience led him to advocate more investigation of chemical pollution around the world.
Even so, the massive weapons complex produced bittersweet memories for Johns, a father and husband who died with his family at his side.
Before his death, Johns told The State that he had a sense of accomplishment that he helped America win the Cold War.
"I think most people are basically glad about having worked there,''
Johns said. "You need to be ready to fight for your country.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff
SICK WORKERS PURSUE BROADER COVERAGE
At times, H.L. Woodard used a "protest sign" to hold himself up Thursday
morning.
The 78-year-old Clinton resident admitted he felt weak. However, he
said that it
was important for him to participate with about 50 other people in
a peaceful
demonstration to draw attention to changes that need to be made in
a
compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers.
Woodard, who used to be a machinist at what's now known as the Y-12
National
Security Complex, said he has bone and prostate cancer. He said he
has applied
for compensation under a federal program, but has yet to be approved
for any financial or medical restitution.
This story is continued.To read the rest of this story point your browser
at the
hyperlink :
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/051702/new_0517020043.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear All,
It appears that this is more timely than ever to distribute to the list
as an
FYI posting. I hope that it will be helpful to others. Please forward
as
appropriate. The plutonium oxides (powder) originally were not to be
transported
because of the possibility of reactions in transport from bumps, driving
over
R/R tracks, etc. Guess they'll need bumper stickers that say: Plutonium
Oxides
on Board -- Watch Out, There it Blows!
----- Original Message -----
From: P. Elofson-Gardine, Exec. Dir/EIN
To: kalynda@citizenalert.org
Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2002 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Rocky Flats Pu Transport Hazards
Kalynda,
I thought this might be of interest. In the 1980's, we were greatly
concerned
with what has happened at Rocky Flats, wanted them to clean it up and
get it out
of there. It took a decade of research and testimonies regarding the
hundreds of
accidents, fires, and safety problems to get high level committees
motivated to recommend closure. Afterward, the shock set in. Where do we
go from here? Get
the waste and Pu out of RF? We now realize that it is a far greater
hazard to
transport this anywhere else, and it would be best left where it is.
We realize that there is no real cleanup. Buildings will be taken down,
but
some of the radioactive rubble will be used to backfill these sites,
and the
widespread contamination, albeit lower levels, will be left in place.
Employees
that knew what to do, and how to approach cleanup were laid off, while
"newbies"
were brought in that would do what management told them to do (amongst
new
reports of contamination incidents). DOE doesn't have a fig of an idea
how to
really clean it up, and so they have manipulated environmental standards
to
allow them to leave contamination as is.
At Rocky Flats, they plan to create a nuclear wildlife refuge (read
tours for
the children and hiking trails), and have a nuclear museum at the site.
The City of Arvada is currently building a water reservoir in the southern
buffer zone
(all one mile of it) of Rocky Flats, between the main industrial site
and over a
public service gas reserve held in an old coal mine that extends under
the new
reservoir that leaks methane It's a miracle that a backhoe hasn't'
broken
through and caused a greater disaster. Where is the common sense here?
It would
be far better to leave the plutonium there with guards and keep people
away from
this site, instead of inviting school aged children in for tours and
exposures.
One could change the name to whatever state is about to be an unwanted
nuke
transport recipient on the email to Gov. Hodges below. Bottom line:
This is too
hazardous to transport and put others at risk. The NPP's need to be
shut down
and alternative energy sources used that have already been developed.
The MOX
fuel program is a nightmare that will create further contamination.
It show how desperate DOE is to get rid of this stuff. We need to get the
message across
that the America's taxpaying citizens will not stand for further public
health
nuisances and contamination by a rogue government agency -- DOE. Time
to stop
and consider the long term ramifications of moving on with their plans.
The government has had over 20 years of citizen and scientist testimony
that
indicated Yucca, WIPP, and the MOX programs were shown not to be safe,
but DOE
managed to make it "okay" with their weird science Orwellian approach
to studies
-- decide what they want and make the report result fit -- anything
to justify
going ahead full steam, against the wishes of the American public.
Please
forward to potential interested parties from your last email. I do
not have
their email addresses. Apologies for length.
In Solidarity,
Paula Elofson-Gardine
Biochemist
Executive Director
Environmental Information Network
----- Original Message -----
From: P. Elofson-Gardine, Exec. Dir/EIN
To: The Honorable Gov. Jim Hodges
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 1:50 PM
Subject: Rocky Flats Pu Transport Hazards
To the Honorable Governor Jim Hodges,
I am writing to you regarding the transport of plutonium from the Rocky
Flats
Nuclear Weapons Facility a/k/a "Environmental Technology Site" to the
Savannah
River Site in SC. You are absolutely correct in your stance against
the
transport of Pu to your state. We never thought we'd say this, but
the transport
is far more a risk than DOE would lead you to believe. It is better
to leave it
in place than move it, especially with the current US State of War,
and the
terrorism threats.
Please do not underestimate the determination of the DOE, who enjoys
Soverign
Immunity, and can override States Rights in a State of War, and in
all matters
regarding nuclear materials. In the past, they used to transport nuclear
materials in and out of Rocky Flats in unmarked, unescorted vehicles,
to throw any observers off. We had a friend that drove behind one of those
vehicles that
turned in front of her, and found that her radiation monitor was suddenly
very
active.
We urge you to supply your representatives with hand held radiation
monitors
such as the simple RadAlert (as close to a real time monitor you can
get, it 1
minute to capture a signal) that can monitor alpha, beta, gamma, or
xray for a
mere $250 each that are monitoring traffic in and out of SRS. How will
you know
when one goes on through, despite your stance of no transport into
SC? We would
urge you to have traffic check points near the SRS with State officers
checking
all vehicles going in and out of SRS with "real time" radiation monitors.
This
is one way you can protect the citizens of SC, and raise awareness
of the
dangers of exposure from sitting in traffic next to one of these transports.
BTW: If there is a serious accident with associated nuclear contamination
blowing about, homeowners will not be covered by insurance, due to fine
print
exclusions for coverage of radiation contamination. The Price-Anderson
Act will
also protect the government from liability.
We found our RadAlert radiation monitor to be very useful. It pegged
out at
it's maximum level when Rocky Flats did a prescribed burn in it's buffer
zone
about in April of 2000. Knowing what we were exposed to was very concerning,
but
at least we knew. The "official" word about the releases was that the
radiation
was negligent or zero. We wrote an article regarding that experience
for the
Earth Island Journal August 2001 issue. We invite you to review it.
My sister and I have been working on DOE/RF contamination, environmental
migration and meterology issues since 1986, especially with respect
to
technical, safety, health issues. On 6/6/89, we were at the DOE Waste
Isolation
Pilot Plant Transportation hearing -- the same day the FBI raided RF
due to criminal negligance and actions. The hearings held regarding WIPP
transportation
might be transcripts that would be worthy of review at this point in
time.
There are some very serious issues associated with transport of these
materials that have not been addressed in the news: People in traffic
around
these transports are at risk of neutron and gamma exposures. One scenario
estimated at the 1989 WIPP hearing was if any individuals were stuck
in traffic
behind a nuke transport for 2 hours, they could receive exposures roughly
the
equivilent of two years worth of chest xrays. This would be elevated
in the case
of sensitive recipients such as pregnant women, children, elderly,
or immune
suppressed individuals -- the sensitive populations that were not included
in
risk analyses at that time. The estimates were based upon the adult
white male,
because of known resistance to exposure, so the risk estimates were
grossly
underestimated..
The containers do not pass the crush test in the case of a serious accident
(there have been classified transport accidents), and there is the
possiblity of
serious environmental contamination and migration. Perhaps it would
be a good
idea to make the DOE provide those classified accident unplanned event
or
unusual occurrance reports for your review. The truckers union knows
of these
accidents.
Also, around the time of the 1989 WIPP hearing, there was considerable
tension
amongst DOE representatiaves and the Colo Gov's office ofc regarding
the
extremely hazardous transport of PuO2 (oxidized Pu). They said it was
such a
volatile powder, they were afraid they could set off a chain reaction
explosion
from bumping or jostling it by driving over rail road crossings. We
thought you
might be interested.
Risk: In our case, for Colorado, the scenario was regarding Eisenhower
Tunnel
at the Continental Divide on I-70 in the Rocky Mountains, where a transport
would travel. Should a rollover or other serious accident occur, It could
contaminate the water supplies for both sides of the continent, and
we are in a
drought right now. The Denver (front range) watershed starts there
on the east
side, and the western states watershed starts on the west side of the
tunnel
ridge. A meterologist friend of ours gave us a simplified air movement
physics
advise: Air flow mimics water flow over the terrain, and air inversions
occur
because warm air rises, and cold air sinks. Should a serious accident
occur, the
migrational movement can be anticipated by looking across the terrain.
We would be happy to discuss this with you, or your assistant Hank Stallworth.
We can be reached at 303.233.6677 or 303. 233.7225. Thank you for your
time
reviewing this, and for standing up to the DOE on behalf of the citizens
of
South Carolina.
Respectfully Submitted,
Paula Elofson-Gardine
Susan Elofson-Hurst
Executive Director
Publications Director
Environmental Information Network
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sick workers pursue broader coverage
by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff
At times, H.L. Woodard used a "protest sign" to hold himself up Thursday
morning.
The 78-year-old Clinton resident admitted he felt weak. However, he
said that
it was important for him to participate with about 50 other people
in a
peaceful demonstration to draw attention to changes that need to be
made in a
compensation program for job-sickened nuclear workers.
Woodard, who used to be a machinist at what's now known as the Y-12
National
Security Complex, said he has bone and prostate cancer. He said he
has
applied for compensation under a federal program, but has yet to be
approved
for any financial or medical restitution.
Likewise, Jerry Tudor is also trying to get approved for the Energy
Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program. The 55-year-old former Y-12
worker
also has prostate cancer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
More than 50 people attended a peaceful demonstration Thursday morning
to
draw attention to changes they think need to be made in a compensation
program for job-sickened nuclear workers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Tudor said his case calls for a dose reconstruction, using available
worker
and/or workplace monitoring information, to basically characterize
the
occupational radiation environment to which he was exposed.
"I don't believe I will live to see compensation," said Tudor, who is
part of
a new group called United Sick Oppressed Laborers.
Tudor helped organize the demonstration that was held in the parking
lot of
the compensation program's Oak Ridge field office, located at 800 Oak
Ridge
Turnpike. He said the program fails to meet the needs of the sick workers.
The compensation program, which officially began July 31, 2001, provides
medical care and a payment of $150,000 to sick workers or their survivors,
if
the workers were exposed to cancer-causing radiation or to silica or
beryllium, which are linked to lung diseases. The program is administered
by
the Labor Department.
During the demonstration, Tudor read a lengthy list of problems associated
with the compensation program. Those included the amount of time it
takes to
work through the program, the number of illnesses not covered and the
fact
that workers at each of the Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge
are
treated differently under the plan.
The United Sick Oppressed Laborers, the Coalition for a Healthy Environment
and several other groups are calling for the Tennessee congressional
delegation to hold a meeting in Oak Ridge to understand the compensation
program's weaknesses.
Paul Parson can be contacted at (865) 220-5533 or pparson@oakridger.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Paducah Sun
Paducah, Kentucky
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Government should reach fair settlement with nuclear workers
----------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR:
After World War II, the federal government contracted and subcontracted
with companies throughout the country to develop and manufacture components
and material for the nuclear weapons program. It is now an acknowledged
fact that the government and those agencies and companies engaged in this
nuclear industry were negligent in adequately informing and protecting
workers against the myriad health risks associated with the production
of nuclear material.
It has been no surprise then, that many within this workforce have suffered from an nordinate number of debilitating diseases, many resulting in premature death. Many within this population have suffered from untreatable cancers. The evidence in human suffering is conclusive and damnable.
It has been a bitter harvest for many of these men and their families. Too many have spent their retirement years battling illness and sickness, while others haven't lived that long. As we look back at the conditions under which these men labored and compare the stringent safety rules and guidelines in place to protect workers today, it is no wonder so many have suffered.
Were these men expendable? Was the federal government and the industry it created justified in promoting the production of nuclear weaponry over the protection of the workforce? Are the wives and widows of these men deserving of some sort of redress? After some 50 years, can the government finally address this wrong, which it created?
Knowing full well no form of compensation can assuage the pain and loss, it is the hope of the families victimized by this tragedy that the government can and will accept its complicity and strive to reach a fair and equitable settlement.
STEPHEN LEONARD
Rochester, Ill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Kim Rice" <dkrice@kih.net>
Regarding...
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 10 CFR Part 852
RIN 1901-AA90
Guidelines for Physicians Panel Determinations on Worker Requests for
Assistance in Filing for State Workers' Compensation Benefits
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of final rulemaking.
SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) is today publishing a
final rule
providing procedures to implement Subtitle D of the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 under which a
DOE
contractor employee or the employee's estate or survivor can seek assistance
from the DOE Office of Worker Advocacy (Program Office) in filing a
claim
with the appropriate State workers' compensation system based on an
illness
or death caused by exposure to a toxic substance during the course
of
employment at a DOE facility. These procedures deal with how:
(1) an
individual may submit an application to the Program Office for review
and
assistance, (2) the Program Office determines whether to submit an
application to a physician panel, (3) physician panels determine whether
the
illness or death of a DOE contract employee arose out of and in the
course
of employment by a DOE contractor and through exposure to a toxic substance
at a DOE facility, (4) the Program Office accepts a determination by
a
physicians panel, and (5) appeals may be undertaken.
The summary for 10 CFR Part 852 alone reveals the inheritant flaws and
injustice of this law, not to mention the grave disservice it commits
against sickened and dying nuclear workers.
The very idea that it is the DOE Office of Worker Advocacy (DOE-OWA)
Program
Office that will make the determinations as to whether or not a claim
will
even be allowed to jump through the first hoop of the process - that
of
being forwarded for review by a physicians panel - is asking the fox
to
guard the henhouse. The DOE is driven, institutionally, to protect
its
organization and to limit, to the greatest extent possible, all liability.
This provision is a blantant attempt to limit as much as possible the
knowledge of the full extent of the DOE's full liability for damage
to
nuclear workers by DOE and its contractors. By controlling the
process from
the outset, they can now exercise control over its outcome.
Because it is the DOE and DOE contractors' practices and blantant disregard
for workers health and safety that has created the illnesses being
claimed,
expecting any office under the DOE's purview to be objective during
this
kind of determination process is nothing short of ludicrous, as workers
currently attempting to go through the compensation process are now
learning.
The DOE-OWA Program Office personnel making these determinations are
not
doctors, have no medical background, and are not qualified to determine
whether or not claims are 'justified' for elevation to the next level
-
review by a physician's panel.
The physician's panels are made up of physicians chosen and approved
by the
DOE and the Department of Labor - a clear conflict of interest if ever
one
existed.
Physicians attempting to ascertain whether or not a claimant's illness
"arose out of and in the course
of employment by a DOE contractor and through exposure to a toxic substance
at a DOE facility" have the impossible task of trying to make that
determination in the face of destroyed and / or missing employee
exposure
records and incorrect information provided by the DOE facilities themselves.
This has the effect of making certain only those illnesses that are
glaringly obvious in origin and can be directly traced to the facilities
in
question will be approved for compensation. Those with illnesses
which are
the result of multiple exposures that went undocumented and those caused
by
exposure to a number of different toxic substances at once have little
or no
chance at all of obtaining approval. By DOE's own admission,
many of the
records relating to DOE nuclear facility spills, personnel exposure
incident
s, etc. are "missing" they say, or have been destroyed. These
multiple
exposures and multi-substance exposures, therefore, can not be substantiated
by claimants and will not to assumed as valid by the DOE and DOL appointed
physicians. The illnesses that have resulted from these kinds
of exposures,
which the DOE still refuses to ackowledge took place, account for no
less
than 50% of all sick workers illnesses and deaths.
The ultimate responsibility for compensating the worker's damaged by
the
DOE's nuclear facilities does not lie with the states. More to
the point,
it does not lie with the current taxpayers in the states in which these
plants are located. The responsibility for compensating the affected
workers lies with the federal government which, at the very least,
allowed
the DOE to operate its facilities as it pleased, skirting federal laws
such
as NPDES and NEPA in the process. During the first 30 years of
the
operation of the nuclear facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for example,
the state was not even given access to the facilities and had no
jurisdiction to investigate claims of harm by Tennessee workers.
Even now,
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has no
jurisdictional authority to investigate workers claims of unsafe and
hazardous working conditions at DOE facilities.
Americas nuclear workers have had no one to turn to regarding the violation
of their safety and health, either during or after their employment
- not
the authorities in their states and not even OSHA. No one, that
is, except
the DOE - the very perpetrators of the harm caused to them and the
illnesses
they suffer from.
10 CFR Part 852 is another injustice heaped upon those who have lived
with
enough injustice as it is.
Respectfully,