Fallout legislation progressing

Thursday, May 25, 2000 | 10:02 a.m.

The House Judiciary Committee supports increasing the number of former uranium miners and Western residents living in the path of radioactive bomb fallout who are eligible for benefits up to $100,000 each.

The committee endorsed a Senate-passed bill Wednesday that would expand the list of cancers and other diseases that affect former miners or those living in the path of fallout from nuclear experiments at the Nevada Test Site eligible under a 1990 law.

The latest measure adds open-pit uranium miners and uranium mill workers to those who can request payments.

The bill adds leukemia and cancers of the lung, thyroid, brain, kidney, esophagus and stomach to the list of cancers that make miners eligible for compensation. Kidney disease and two lung ailments also would be added to the list.

For people who lived in areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona most affected by nuclear fallout from weapons experiments, the added cancers include leukemia and those of the brain, bladder, colon, ovaries and salivary glands.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the changes to the existing law could cost $1 billion over 20 years.

Critics of the 1990 law sought changes, saying the original legislation was too narrow and too many people with legitimate claims are denied compensation. The Justice Department reported paying 3,302 claims for a total of $244 million and denied another 3,500 claims.

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