Radiation payment bill creates questions

Weller will speak at press conference Monday

Now that legislation providing compensation for workers exposed to radiation during government weapons work seems to be a sure thing, local workers affected and their families have a lot of questions.

   Former employees of the Blockson Chemical Co., just south of Joliet, which was sold to the Olin company in 1955, and their families have been calling The Herald News since an article on the issue first appeared Sept. 20.

   They said they had always wondered whether the cancers and other illnesses they or their loved ones suffered had anything to do with their years of work at Blockson/Olin, which closed much of its 1,000-acre chemical plant on Patterson Road west of Brandon in 1991.

   On Thursday, negotiators in the U.S. House and Senate reached an agreement that could provide compensation to some Blockson/Olin workers or their families. The agreement is expected to be approved by the full House and Senate before their current session ends Oct. 14.

   Under the agreement, those workers made ill from exposure to radiation or the deadly metal beryllium at businesses that contributed to the production of nuclear weapons for the government would be eligible for $150,000 and health-care benefits.

   That includes 2,300 workers at the University of Chicago — and later, the Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont — who were exposed to beryllium during the early days of atomic bomb research in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

   Affected workers at the former Blockson/Olin Co. just south of Joliet and some employees of the William E. Pratt Co., once located at Cass Street and Henderson Avenue in Joliet, who were exposed to uranium, also could be eligible for the compensation and benefits. At Blockson, those employees worked in Building 55, which, like all other buildings on the site, has been knocked down.

   Families of those workers who have already died could be eligible for the $150,000 settlement, said April Kaufman, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. But she believes that the settlements and medical benefits applied to only those workers who had contact with the uranium during the government contracts.

   At Blockson, that would apply to employees who worked in Building 55 between 1952 and 1962 when the company had a secret government contract to extract uranium for Cold War nuclear weapons from phosphorus. At Pratt, that would apply to workers who helped grind the uranium rods used for nuclear fuel between 1943 and 1946.

   One problem so far is that Olin officials do not have records of who worked in Building 55 during the time of the government contract. Curt Richards of Olin said they are trying to see if the Department of Energy has those records. Kaufman said she was not sure whether or not DOE had them.

   Regardless, Kaufman said, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson pushed for the measure to give workers the benefit of the doubt. So the compromise, if approved and signed by the president, includes a provision that workers or their families will not have to document that they worked in a certain building at a certain time.

   They would, however, have to show that the workers have or had a type of cancer that can be traced to exposure to ionized radiation. That includes cancers of the bone, lung, bile duct, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gall bladder, kidney, liver, ovaries, pancreas, pharynx, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid and bladder, as well as leukemias, non-Hodgkins lymphomas and multiple myelomas.

   Kaufman said affected workers or their families can call a hot line at the DOE's Worker Advocacy Office to find out if they might be eligible for the pending compensation. The toll-free number is (866) 888-3322. Callers will hear a recorded message asking them to leave information and that a representative will get back to them within two business days.

   Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, will hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the former Blockson/Olin site to talk about the compromise as well as efforts to have the government notify workers exposed to radiation at the facility.

   The compromise does not address the claims of Blockson/Olin workers who say they did not work in Building 55, but may have gotten various types of cancers from other chemicals or asbestos at the plant. Officials say those claims could be addressed through workers compensation or a class-action suit.