Editorial: More relief needed for radiation victims

Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999 | 9:19 a.m.

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice held a meeting in Las Vegas to explain who is eligible under federal law to receive financial compensation for exposure to above-ground atomic testing. Some of the nearly 200 people attending, including some so ill they were confined to wheelchairs, had worked at the Nevada Test Site or were residents who lived downwind of radioactive fallout caused by the powerful nuclear blasts from 1951 to 1962.

But as the Sun's Mary Manning reported Thursday, many of those who came are ineligible to receive benefits, because the compensation essentially is limited to cancer-related illnesses and doesn't account for other illnesses that may be linked to radiation exposure. Also, a worker exposed to radiation is limited to just $75,000 in medical expenses, a sum that may not cover all medical bills. Congress should seriously consider legislation pending that would end these inequities. It's the least a nation can do that took actions jeopardizing the health of so many Americans.

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