Sunday, August 07, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

COLD WAR COMPENSATION: Analysis finds disparity

Only 6 percent of former test site workers have had illness claims approved

Former Nevada Test Site worker John Funk talks about his health problems Thursday at his Las Vegas apartment. He blames his bone marrow disorder on workplace conditions and believes he should be compensated under a Labor Department program. Photo by Samantha Clemens

The check is in the mail for some sick workers and survivors of others who worked in the nation's nuclear weapons complex.

But for many it is not, especially those who worked at the Nevada Test Site, where 1,021 nuclear devices were detonated during the Cold War, above ground, down holes and in tunnels.

Statistics kept by the Department of Labor, the agency charged with doling out Cold War compensation checks to sick energy employees, show that those who worked at the test site have the lowest approval rate per number of cases filed.

An analysis by the Review-Journal of six sites where radioactive and toxic materials were used to make or test nuclear warheads shows only 6 percent of test site workers have been approved for claims that typically pay $150,000 in tax-free compensation.

That's compared to 26 percent for workers at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., gaseous diffusion plant; 25 percent at the Portsmouth, Ohio, plant; 18 percent at the Paducah, Ky., plant; 8 percent at the Savannah River, S.C., site; and 7 percent at the government's Hanford, Wash., facility.

Of those six locations, the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was the only one where energy employees worked in areas where nuclear devices had been detonated.

John Funk of Las Vegas is a former contract worker who has been treated for skin cancer and two types of colon cancer. He still suffers from a type of bone cancer called "myeloproliferative," a chronic disorder in which the bone marrow produces too many red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets.

He said he believes his illnesses are linked to exposure to radioactive materials, benzene or both.

"We knew there was a certain amount of risk, but we didn't know how much risk," said Funk, 64, a carpenter who installed bulkheads in tunnels where nuclear weapons effects tests were conducted.

"If they had been truthful, I wouldn't have gone out there," he said.

He has been battling the Energy and Labor departments for compensation for nearly six years. At first, his claim was denied, but a review of his records by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health revealed that his bout with the bone marrow disorder had been overlooked in his initial screening.

Funk was one of a throng of former test site workers who attended a recent meeting hosted by the Labor Department's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. They complained that they were being lied to and forced to follow a complicated claims process filled with "trip wires" and "loopholes."

One local Labor Department representative, Joe Krachenfels, explained that workers at out-of-state uranium enrichment and processing plants generally qualified for a "compensable-type illness and didn't have to go through dose reconstruction" as is the case for many test site workers.

One Labor Department official said workers at three uranium enrichment plants -- Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge -- had only to show that they worked there for 250 days and that they had contracted one of 22 specified cancers, chronic beryllium disease or silicosis. Then they could each receive a $150,000 compensation payment.

"If you didn't work at one of those plants, you would go through dose reconstruction, where NIOSH would look at your work history and cancer and make a determination that your job caused your illness," said the official, referring to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He spoke on background with the condition his name not be used.

In an interview Friday, the program's director, Peter Turcic, offered an explanation for the low approval rate for former test site workers.

He said one reason is that there is overlap between test site workers and those from the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory who spent time at the test site to conduct full-scale nuclear tests between 1951 and 1992.

Evaluators have not completed a profile of the Los Alamos lab conditions, which could have caused a number of ailments.

Another factor is that the vast majority of the test site's denied claims were attributable to health conditions not covered by the part of the regulations that deals with exposure to radioactive materials.

Turcic said the frequency of occurrences of noncovered claims was "dramatically different" for the test site, the Hanford facility and the Savannah River site.

Many of the cases that were denied will be covered under a new part of the program that was added by Congress last year. That part deals with illnesses stemming from exposure to chemicals.

As of Thursday, Turcic said, 15,026 individuals have been paid a total of $1.16 billion under the part that covers illnesses related to radiation.

So far, under the other part that pertains to chemical exposures, final approval has been given for 1,136 individuals for a total of $86 million. In the 10 months since taking over the program, the Labor Department has been churning out about 250 decisions per week concerning chemical exposure.

The program was administered by the Department of Energy until Congress last year amended the compensation act and gave the Labor Department responsibility for catching up on the backlog of cases.

Turcic said it costs about a combined total of $99 million to administer both components of the program, with duties spread among 464 employees.

But Funk and others are not convinced that the way the act is set up is as fair to former test site employees as it is to former workers in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

That's because, in order to receive compensation, claimants must show the likelihood that a radioactive or toxic material caused or aggravated an illness is at least 50 percent.

In Funk's case, he had a 46 percent rating with just skin and colon cancers. He's hoping that consideration of his bone marrow disorder will push him to or above the 50 percent mark and give him a $150,000 pay out.

He is not alone. He estimates another 500 of his former co-workers face similar circumstances.

One of them, Robert Salas, 76, of Las Vegas was denied compensation this year after evaluators rated the likelihood that workplace conditions caused his prostate cancer and hearing loss at about 43 percent. He worked as a technician at the test site for contractors from 1977 to 1985.

"We set up the experiments in the tunnels. During four-month periods, we were down there every day. We did work above and below ground," he said.

Instead of being denied based on a threshold assessment, Salas said the fair thing to do would be to base compensation on a linear method. In other words, he should be entitled to roughly 43 percent of $150,000 in compensation instead of zero.

On July 28, he stated his case in a letter to Shelby Hallmark, director of the Labor Department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.

"Humans are not digital by nature, whereby they have two states: tall or short, white or black, fat or thin," he wrote. "They don't all have the same tolerance for developing cancer from a fixed radiation dose.

"If the objective of the threshold method is to eliminate as many claims as possible, it may be regarded as successful based on the high rate of rejection," Salas said in his letter.

His wife, Genevieve, said there should be a more equitable compensation process.

"It seems unfair that all these hard working men were denied," she said.

COMPENSATION COMPARISON

Energy employees who became sick from exposure to radioactive and toxic materials while working in the nation's nuclear weapons complex can receive compensation under a program run by the Department of Labor.

Below is a list of six selected sites detailing cases and total amounts paid to workers, former workers and their survivors.

The figures are current to July 28. They combine illnesses such as radiogenic cancers, silicosis and berylliosis with ailments linked to toxic chemicals and compounds in the workplace.

Figures for approvals, denials and cases under review don't equal the total number of cases because many claimants report employment at more than one worksheet and each case may have multiple claims filed by survivors of an employee.

Site	Cases	Amount*	Approved	Denied	Under review**
Nevada Test Site	3,329	$21.26	193 (6%)	895	1,167
Hanford, Wash.	5,730	$36.85	401 (7%)	1,322	2,249
Savannah River, S.C.	7,554	$69.44	582 (8%)	2,186	2,376
Paducah, Ky.	8,416	$211.60	1,501 (18%)	2,221	1,122
Portsmouth, Ohio	4,204	$146.21	1,046 (25%)	876	672
Oak Ridge, Tenn.***	7,429	$262.98	1,965 (26%)	1,283	1,274

*In millions of dollars rounded

**Cases referred for dose reconstruction and review by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

*** Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant only

---REVIEW-JOURNAL