(Source: Dayton Daily News)
By Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News, Ohio
Oct. 20--Ailing Cold War-era atomic workers at plants at Fernald and
Piqua and some survivors would have an easier time obtaining federal
compensation and medical benefits under legislation announced today, Oct. 20,
by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Under the legislation, former workers at the Feed Materials Production
Center at Fernald and the Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor suffering from
certain cancers and other ailments would benefit from the presumption that
their illnesses were caused by occupational exposures, enabling them to
qualify for help under the Labor Department's Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program.
Representatives from both plants have petitioned the government for the
special status, and decisions are pending. More than 1,900 employees from the
two plants have applied to the compensation program for benefits.
"Former energy workers battling cancer should not have to struggle to
receive the benefits to which they are entitled," Brown said. He said his bill
would "cut through the red tape."
Without the special status, sick atomic workers must go through a
paperwork process called dose reconstruction to show that their illnesses were
at least 50 percent likely to have been caused by on-the-job exposures to
radiation or toxic chemicals at various Energy Department complexes. Critics
say it's impossible to accurately reconstruct a person's exposure decades
later.
Some former workers at the Monsanto Chemical Co. in Dayton, the Mound
Plant in Miamisburg and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon have
already received the special status.
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