Government ready to start helping sick workers file claims

Monday, May 1, 2000 | 3:58 a.m.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson promised last month that his department would stop contesting claims and begin assisting ailing workers.

Former workers from the Fernald uranium processing plant outside Cincinnati and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, will be among the first who can seek help, said David Michaels, the department's top health official.

Nothing has barred employees of the companies operating those and other nuclear weapons plants from filing claims through state compensation programs, "but in the past the Department of Energy has often fought those claims," Michaels said.

Michaels' "worker advocacy office" is part of a broader compensation plan made public in April. Congress must still approve the centerpiece of the plan - cash payments of at least $100,000 for every worker who contracted a radiation- or beryllium-related disease on the job.

The Energy Department had enough money in this year's budget to open the advocacy office with a staff of three, Michael said. But he said it will require congressional authorization before it can hire enough staff to investigate the hundreds of compensation claims expected.

The three employees initially will handle paperwork only for former weapons plant workers who have gone through a medical screening that determined they definitely suffer from a work-related illness.