U.S. reaches settlement for 12 radiation victims -FYI

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

U.S. reaches settlement for 12 radiation victims


The U.S. government agreed to a $4.8
million settlement with the families of 12 victims of secret
radiation tests, one of the attorneys for the families said
Monday.
     Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary was due to announce the
settlement Tuesday at a meeting of the American Public Health
Association in New York, Energy Department spokeswoman Anne
Elliott said. She declined to comment on the terms of the
agreement.
     Each of the families will receive $400,000, said Ray Heslin
of the New York law firm Gold, Farrell and Marks. O'Leary is
also due to make a public apology to the families on behalf of
the government at a future date, he said.
     The settlement covers 12 out of 18 victims whom the Clinton
administration last year promised to compensate for harm done by
the government in its Cold War-era radiation tests, Elliott
said.
     All but one of the victims were injected with plutonium
without their consent in experiments that were coordinated at
the University of Rochester to test the potential effects of
nuclear fallout.
     Only one of the 18 victims -- Mary Jean Connell, who was
injected with uranium -- is still alive, according to Heslin.
     The attorneys are handling the cases of three other victims
whose families were found a little later than the other 12.
Heslin said it was unclear why the other three cases were not
being settled at the same time.
     ``If they're settling, they should be paying them the same
amount as everybody else,'' he said.
     Other lawsuits against the government are still pending,
including one involving prisoners in Oregon whose families are
seeking $250 million in damages.
     O'Leary led the effort to declassify top-secret documents on the
radiation experiments.

Sandy Perle
Director, Technical Operations
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com