Bill Would Help Fernald Workers
October 21, 2009
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer
By Peter Urban
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown unveiled legislation Tuesday that would extend occupational illness-related compensation and health benefits to hundreds of former employees at two Cold War-era nuclear facilities in Ohio.
The Ohio Democrat's proposal would extend a special designation to the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald and the Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor in Piqua so that former workers suffering from certain forms of cancer would automatically qualify for compensation.
Under current law, compensation is paid only if there is evidence the cancer was likely caused by radiation exposure.
"Former energy workers battling cancer should not have to struggle to receive the benefits to which they are entitled," Brown said. "This bill would cut through the red tape to enable the former workers at the Fernald and Piqua sites and their survivors to receive critical compensation and health benefits."
The special status had previously been granted to certain Ohio workers at a gaseous-diffusion plant in Portsmouth, the Harshaw Harvard-Denison Plant in Cleveland and the Monsanto Chemical Co. in Dayton.
The Department of Labor has paid out nearly $110 million in occupational illness-related compensation to former Fernald employees. In all, 751 claims have been denied because medical information was insufficient to support the claim. More than 1,900 former Fernald workers have filed claims through the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
Only 11 former workers at the Piqua plant have filed similar claims.
