The nation’s top health chief has spurned a request by Colorado’s congressional delegation to make it easier for former Rocky Flats workers to be compensated for job-related cancer and other illnesses.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar released a letter Tuesday from Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt that backed advisers’ recommendations to not expand the “special exposure cohort” status granted to a limited number of Rocky Flats workers.
The Colorado Democrat sent a letter to Leavitt that said he is disappointed with the decision “because Rocky Flats workers, who are among our country’s heroes of the Cold War, will not have their medical issues effectively addressed.”
Salazar also promised to introduce legislation to address the workers’ needs.
The Rocky Flats plant, about 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver, produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989.
Special-status petitioners said Leavitt had not notified them of his decision, which they said they will appeal.
“We’re very happy with the ongoing congressional support, but the challenge will be to make it more than a Colorado action,” said petition drafter Jennifer Thompson.
Prior legislation has been unsuccessful, but Thompson said she’s hopeful a change in the political climate will make a difference.
Leavitt urged former workers to pursue compensation and health benefits individually.
One claimant, who didn’t want her name published, said Tuesday she’ll keep up her efforts.
Her husband was a chemical engineer at Rocky Flats from 1952 to 1959. He died in 1989 of a serious lung disease after suffering 10 years from bladder and prostate cancers.
“I’m just going to keep at it until I hear it’s no hope,” she said.
