Radiation victims could get choice in compensation

Proposal to Congress: Would allow workers to collect lost wages

Employees at three local plants who were exposed to uranium and other dangerous materials during Cold War nuclear weapons manufacturing could be eligible for even greater compensation under legislation proposed to Congress on Thursday.

   President Clinton last month signed an executive order expediting a compensation package already approved by Congress in the fall. That package provided a lump-sum payment of $150,000 to the workers or their survivors, as well as medical benefits for the former workers.

   The new legislation proposed Thursday by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman would give workers a choice of the lump-sum $150,000 payment or compensation for lost wages due to illness. Both sets of legislation include the payment of medical expenses.

   The proposed amendments also include an appeals process, said Jeff Sherwood of the U.S. Department of Energy. If the amendments offered Thursday are approved by Congress, workers dissatisfied with their compensation package or turned down outright would be able to appeal the decision.

   The option of the compensation for lost wages could amount to more than the $150,000, said U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, who was happy to hear about the proposed amendments. While holding to the original allocation of $275 million over five years is important, Weller said the prime concern is to take care of the workers who were unknowingly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and suffered life-threatening or fatal consequences while working for their country.

   He noted that the current compensation package and the proposed amendments cover only those employees who worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts.

Area plants

   The legislation, current and proposed, would cover former employees of the Blockson/Olin plant south of Joliet; the William E. Pratt Co., formerly at Cass and Henderson streets in Joliet; and some 2,300 people at the University of Chicago, and later Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont, who worked with the dangerous metal beryllium during atomic bomb research in the 1940s.

   Dozens of workers at the now-closed Blockson Chemical plant, later Olin, at Patterson near Brandon roads, were exposed to uranium they extracted under a secret government weapons contract from 1952 to 1962. Workers at the former Pratt company were involved in grinding uranium rods for nuclear fuel.

   Scores of workers at Argonne and Blockson/Olin believed for years their cancers and other physical ailments were caused by their exposure with the radioactive materials. But it wasn't until early last year that the federal government admitted that more than 10,000 workers at some 200 private companies nationwide would have been exposed unknowingly as the companies had secret contracts with the government.

Burden of proof

   U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, whose district includes Argonne, was more guarded about the proposed amendments. While she supported the current legislation, she, like House leaders, had some concerns.

   She said she would support the amendments so long as they were "necessary and fair and protected against fraud."

   Weller noted that the former employees or their survivors need only show that they or their loved ones worked at the plants during the times of the government contracts. It will be the burden of the government to show that the cancers and other diseases the victims suffered could not be traced to their secret government work.

   The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will develop guidelines for the Department of Labor to determine whether a cancer is likely to be related to a worker's occupational exposure to radiation, Richardson said.

   Guidelines also will be set to establish methods to estimate worker exposure to radiation and to develop estimates for those who have applied for compensation. A presidential advisory committee will oversee those guidelines.

   DOE's Sherwood said they hope to have the application process in place by late summer or early fall. Until then, he encouraged former workers or their families to call the DOE hot line at (877) 447-9756.

   Weller said those interested could also call his Joliet office at (815) 740-2028 to register. Biggert said constituents, especially those affected by the beryllium contamination, could call her Hinsdale office at (630) 655-2052.

   The issue was originally brought to light by a series of USA Today articles released last fall.