Lakewood – Dozens of former Rocky Flats workers and their families – telling stories of devastating illnesses – pleaded with a federal advisory panel Monday night to make it significantly easier for sick Flats workers or their next of kin to receive compensation.
Many of those who spoke either suffered from cancer or know someone who died from the disease. One former Flats worker told the panel that 12 of the 15 men who worked in his area contracted cancer or another devastating illness from their work. Seven have died.
“I want to remind you that time is not on our side,” state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, told the panel, speaking in support of the workers. “The people who sit behind me are aware of this every moment of every hour of every day. … This is a stain on the country’s conscience.”
The 11-member panel – called the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health – is charged with making a recommendation to the U.S. secretary of health and human services on whether Rocky Flats workers should receive “special exposure cohort” status. Such status means a Rocky Flats worker who has one of 22 types of cancer and worked at the nuclear weapons facility more than 250 days would receive $150,000 and reimbursement of medical expenses.
Last month, the advisory board recommended that a portion of Rocky Flats workers who worked there between 1952 and 1958 receive the status. This still leaves potentially more than 10,000 former employees outside coverage, said Jennifer Thompson, a former Flats worker who is leading the petition effort for cohort status. Employees who get sick from that group will have to individually petition the government for compensation, a process that many said takes years and might not result in compensation.
Frank Steinbach, 81, a World War II veteran who also worked at Rocky Flats, said he contracted prostate and bladder cancer after retiring from the plant. He filed for compensation in 2001, he said, but was turned down.
“They said I didn’t qualify, that I didn’t get it at Rocky Flats,” he said. “I’ve been getting the runaround, that’s all.”
Walt Capps, who worked at Rocky Flats for 31 years and contracted prostate cancer after his retirement, said he has been denied compensation.
“If I don’t get anything, maybe I can support somebody else getting something,” he said.
Clifford DelForge and his son, Douglas, both worked at Rocky Flats. While Clifford hasn’t suffered any medical problems because of the work, Douglas contracted brain tumors that made him blind and deaf on one side and confined to a wheelchair. Clifford said he was told recently that Douglas would receive compensation, after more than five years of fighting.
“If I hadn’t done what I did, we would be where we were before,” Clifford said. “We would be getting nothing.”
Today, the panel is scheduled to hear more testimony, then vote on whether to extend cohort status to a larger share of Rocky Flats workers.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
