11.30.06

Cantwell Calls for Thorough Evaluation of Former Hanford Workers’ Petition for Compensation

Petition could give former workers access to compensation for illnesses associated with work at nuclear facility

WASHINGTON, DC – Thursday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) urged the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to give a thorough and fair review to a petition for compensation for work-related illnesses submitted by former Hanford workers.

“Our federal government owes former Hanford workers a full and fair review of this petition,” said Cantwell. “We need to make sure we give them the compensation they deserve for any illness they acquired serving their country. Too many of these workers have waited years for help; we need to get them the help they deserve without any further delays.”

Cantwell is also urging NIOSH to consider during the review process the findings of an audit released in June 2005 suggesting that a possible deficiency in data on worker radiation exposure between 1944 and 1968 may lead officials to unfairly deny workers access to the compensation they need to help cover medical care. Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) status, which the workers’ petition seeks, would make former employees automatically eligible for workers’ compensation. Without SEC status, deficiencies in radiation exposure data may make it impossible for many of these workers to get compensation for radiation-related illnesses.

NIOSH has already qualified the petition submitted by the workers and their families, meaning that the agency finds the petition has been filled out completely or provides all information required. NIOSH now has 180 days to evaluate the petition for SEC status, after which it will issue a recommendation to the petitioners and the NIOSH Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will then conduct an independent review and vote on a recommendation to the Secretary of Health and Human Services who will issue a final agency decision within 30 days of reviewing the Board’s recommendation. The Hanford workers’ petition covers all employees from January 1, 1942 through December 31, 1990.

A Special Exposure Cohort may be designated in cases when there is not enough data to estimate radiation exposure with sufficient accuracy and a reasonable likelihood that exposure to radiation may have endangered the health of class of workers. SEC status is intended to remove an otherwise insurmountable burden of proof, providing an automatic presumption of causation for 22 radiation-related cancers.

An audit prepared by S. Cohen & Associates (SC&A, Inc.) and released on June 10, 2005 reviewed the Hanford site profile—a case history of activities at the Hanford nuclear facility—and found several instances where thousands of workers may be eligible for SEC status. Specifically, the audit found potentially significant exposures of reactor workers to unmeasured neutrons and unplanned airborne releases of radionuclides. The report noted inconsistencies over time in recording worker radiation exposure, and insufficient measurements taken for internal exposure to recycled uranium. Insufficient or inconsistent data could make it impossible to determine the real exposure level of former workers through dose reconstruction. Without dose reconstruction individual petitions would be turned down and SEC status would be former workers’ only hope of compensation for their work-related injuries or illnesses.

In October 2005, following the release of the audit, Cantwell wrote to NIOSH urging the agency’s Advisory Board to review the audit’s findings and consider granting SEC status to certain former Hanford workers. In a letter to Cantwell, NIOSH committed to discussing the audit’s findings and re-evaluating the benefits status of former Hanford workers. Last summer, during its meeting from June 14 to 16, the Advisory Board discussed the Hanford site profile and considered testimony submitted by Cantwell. NIOSH first discussed the Hanford site profile and audit at their January 2006 Board meeting, which subsequently led to them forming the Advisory Board’s Working Group on the Hanford Site Profile Review. Their working group’s first meeting will be held on this Friday, December 1, at 1:30 p.m. Cantwell’s office will participate via telephone.

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