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DOEWatch] DOE advocacy office open for ill workers
Colleagues -
Forwarded from the DOEWatch mailing list.
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@mail.dnr.state.ga.us
Source:
http://www.oakridger.com/
=======================================================
May 2, 2000
DOE advocacy office open for ill workers
by Larisa Brass
Oak Ridger staff
As promised, the Department of Energy has set up an office to help ill
workers receive compensation.
And several hundred current and former Oak Ridge employees will be among the
first to benefit from the office, said David Michaels, DOE assistant
secretary for environment, safety and health.
DOE's worker advocacy office opened for business Monday in Washington, D.C.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson promised to set up the office last month,
when he announced legislation proposed by the Clinton administration that
would provide compensation to workers suffering from chronic beryllium
disease and radiogenic cancers across the nation's nuclear weapons complex.
The office will immediately assist current and former workers whose
occupational health problems have been identified through a handful of
medical screenings at DOE sites.
"Our first work," said Michaels, will be "focusing on workers whom we've
already examined and determined to have work-related illness. We're focusing
right now on people who our physicians have already seen."
Until Congress passes legislation that would allow DOE to compensate workers,
the new office will help these employees receive state workers compensation,
he said. DOE is ready, said Michaels, to stop fighting these claims and
assist workers.
Locally, groups of ill workers from three screening programs qualify for
immediate assistance: a screening for former construction workers at Oak
Ridge DOE sites conducted by the Knoxville Building and Construction Trades
Council; a screening for former workers at the Oak Ridge K-25 site conducted
by the Paper, Allied-industrial, Chemical and Energy workers union; and a
study of about 50 K-25 workers by three occupational health physicians.
The legislation proposed by the administration would provide health care
benefits and back pay or a lump sum of $100,000 to workers and former workers
suffering from chronic beryllium disease or radiogenic cancers or their
families.
If the legislation passes, said Michaels, then the worker advocacy office
will manage the compensation program. At that time, he said, DOE may open
regional advocacy offices at DOE sites across the country.
At that time, others who believe work at DOE plants caused their illnesses
may call the office and submit their cases to a panel of independent
physicians for review, he said.
Until then, said Michaels, DOE can only provide information to workers
outside the official screening programs.
"I don't want to encourage large numbers of people to call, because it's
largely informational at this point," he said. "It will be some months before
we can help people (who aren't part of the physicians' studies)."
All three local health screenings have found workers who suffer from
work-related illness.
The construction worker study examines those who worked at Oak Ridge DOE
sites in temporary construction jobs. Earlier this year, a preliminary report
of the screening showed that out of 200 workers who received medical exams,
six had tested positive for signs of chronic beryllium exposure, 20 percent
had work-related lung abnormalities and 6 percent to 7 percent showed signs
of asbestosis.
A screening for former K-25 workers has also revealed signs of lung disease
and cancer in workers who participated in the study. That study, which
includes all three of DOE's uranium processing plants, has been expanded to
include current workers as well. And physicians conducting a study of about
50 K-25 workers have reported that the majority suffer from some type of
work-related illness.
More information about worker screening programs is available on the Internet
at www.eh.doe.gov/workers. Workers may contact the advocacy office at (877)
447-9756.
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