Monday, October 28, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Checks coming in for ex-workers with illnesses linked to test site jobs

Two years after a compensation program was launched, the first six-figure checks are trickling in for former Nevada Test Site employees who came down with illnesses linked to their nuclear weapons jobs.

Bob Agonia, manager of the local program office, reports that out of 1,521 claims filed by test site workers, 59 have been paid, totalling nearly $7.5 million.

Agonia's staff includes four caseworkers and an administrative assistant.

Half the number of claims, 761, are cancer cases that have been sent to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for review.

The remaining cases are primarily those linked to former workers' exposure to beryllium or silica that resulted in debilitating conditions. Most of the 59 former workers or their survivors who have been compensated fit this category.

Passed by Congress in October 2000, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Program Act provides $150,000 in a lump-sum payment, as well as coverage of related medical expenses, to workers who became seriously ill from exposure to beryllium, silica or radiation while working for the Department of Energy and its contractors or subcontractors.

The program also gives benefits to their surviving spouses and children. Diseases covered include a variety of cancers caused by radiation, chronic beryllium disease and chronic silicosis.

The program didn't cover hearing impairments that many former Nevada Test Site workers blame on working in tunnels where heavy equipment was used.

One former test site worker, John Funk, said he is having a difficult time persuading the government to compensate him for a rare disease linked to exposure to radiation or high levels of benzene. The disease that he has been diagnosed with having, myeloproliferative disorder, affects the bone marrow's ability to make blood cells.

He noted that a rare, nonmalignant but dangerous brain tumor, Schwannomas, also is not covered under the program even though it has been linked to radiation exposure and has affected some of his former co-workers.

"Both of these can kill you but we can't get compensation," Funk said.

Agonia said based on Department of Energy estimates, thousands of former workers or their survivors could eventually file compensation claims given that the test site has had roughly 100,000 employees since full-scale nuclear weapons testing began there in 1951.

The Energy Department's Nevada operations work force includes workers who participated in the Cannikin Spartan missile warhead test at Amchitka, Alaska, in 1971.

The Nevada Test Site is located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

There is no deadline for filing claims, Agonia said.

-- KEITH ROGERS

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