WESTMINSTER, Colo.-
Some former workers at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant were turned away empty-handed Thursday when an advisory board recommended that only a limited number get easier access to compensation for work-related cancers.
The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health recommended that people who worked at the plant between 1952 and 1958 get streamlined access to benefits.
The board recommended that health experts study people who worked at the plant after 1958 to see if they should also be included.
“We left them dangling,” conceded Paul L. Ziemer, chairman of the board. He said the group of workers covered could be expanded—the plant wasn’t formally closed until 2005—at their next meeting. “In my mind we haven’t excluded anyone.”
The recommendations go to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers are covered by each recommendation.
The plant about 15 miles northwest of Denver made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. It closed in 1989 because of safety concerns and the end of the Cold War.
Many former workers have said they developed cancer and other diseases because of their jobs there.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., condemned the decision. “With this exceedingly narrow and confusing decision, the Board has left thousands of former Rocky Flats workers without resolution. By focusing on the issue of sufficient accuracy, the Board has totally lost focus on the other essential purpose of the law: timely compensation.”
Currently, they must prove their diseases were the result of exposure to radiation or chemicals at the plant in order to get compensation—a standard they say is too high.
Former workers at 21 other government nuclear sites can get benefits simply by showing they have a form of cancer that can be caused by radiation. The Colorado workers and the state’s congressional delegation want Rocky Flats added to that list.
On Wednesday, more than two dozen former Rocky Flats workers pleaded with the advisory board to speed up health benefits, saying they feared they could be dead before they are compensated.
“They are throwing us away like they did the nuclear waste. It’s a slap in the face,” said Judy Padilla, 60, of Denver, who worked 22 years at the plant—all after 1958. In 1998 she had a radical mastectomy for breast cancer.
“What they are doing is sticking with a case-by-case review, but the records are not accurate. They falsified many of them or destroyed them,” worried Dennis Romero of Thornton, who began working at Rocky Flats in 1988.
Michelle Dobrovolny, 42, who worked 18 years at Rocky Flats, all after 1958, said, “The rug has been pulled out from under me.” She has already watched five relatives who worked at the plant die. She has a brain tumor and Sjogren’s disease, which affects the immune system.
“We shouldn’t have to fight for our benefits while we are fighting for our lives,” she said.
All nine members of Colorado’s congressional delegation asked the advisory board Thursday to make it easier for the former Rocky Flats workers to get compensation.
The board held several hours of hearings Wednesday night and Thursday morning before making its decision. It is scheduled to meet again June 12.
Board member Michael Gibson, a retired electrician from Miamisburg, Ohio, opposed the motion, saying it should cover all workers. He said some of the federal employees who did the research on how much radiation exposure was required to endanger health had a conflict of interest. Gibson didn’t elaborate, but Kay Barker of Grandby, whose husband died of cancer in 1994, said he was referring to three former employees of Rockwell International.
She noted her husband, Lawrence, started working at Rocky Flats in December 1958 so she would get no survivors benefits because of the requirement that workers put in at least 180 days at the plant 16 miles northwest of Denver.
A letter from the delegation to the board said the government has stalled on providing compensation for the workers and has put obstacles in the path of legitimate claims.
The letter says the advisory boards that make decisions on health benefits are filled with people who are unsympathetic to the workers.
Many former workers have said they developed cancer and other diseases because of their jobs there. A study done by the University of Colorado and state health department found that 1,259 cases of cancer had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control by former Rocky Flats employees.
The U.S. Labor Department’s Web site reported receiving claims from a total of 2,703 former workers by Wednesday. It said payments had been made in 677 cases, totaling $96.1 million. Medical bills of $5.8 million also were paid.
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On the Net:
Report of study of Rocky Flats workers:
Department of Labor:
