Ailing Test Site workers vent anger at meeting

Thursday, Nov. 2, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Dr. David Michaels, the Department of Energy's top health official, came to Las Vegas to answer questions from aging and ailing ex-Nevada Test Site workers about the radiation compensation package that recently was passed by Congress.

But Michaels didn't get to answer many questions Wednesday at the town hall meeting at the Clark County Library because many who got up to speak chose instead to vent frustration and tell the same horror stories that have been told and retold.

By the angry tone of their voices, many appeared to view the measure as more of the same rhetoric they have been spoonfed for many years -- years in which many of them have suffered from cancers they say are related to their Test Site jobs.

"I have no faith in the DOE," said one woman who says she has been fighting the agency since 1977. "You weren't there (at the Test Site)," one man shouted at Michaels, who has been with the agency just two years and has the official title of assistant secretary of Environment, Safety and Health.

Michaels told the crowd of about 125 that the legislation is "not perfect, but it is a start" and can be improved in future sessions of Congress.

He did not defend the DOE, admitting the agency and past presidential administrations "stonewalled" workers from getting benefits for job-related ailments. The legislation "took 50 years too long," he said of the package that is expected to give 800 Test Site workers harmed by radiation, silica particles or beryllium exposure $150,000 each.

Occasionally, a question would pop up from the crowd, interrupting the heartbreaking string of stories that ranged from complete loss of body hair from radiation exposure to deafness -- something not even covered in the legislation -- to stomach cancer.

"Who is going to administer this?" asked Dave Eddards, who said 38 years ago he was diagnosed with silicosis, but may not receive benefits because he does not yet have a severe enough case of the degenerative disease, according to the legislation.

Michaels said that the Department of Labor, not the DOE, would run the program, "for two reasons. First the DOE has checkered credibility (routinely denying claims) and second the Department of Labor runs the worker's compensation program" and thus is the logical choice.

Eddards, who left the DOE in 1969 after 10 years at the Test Site, was asked how bad he figured his illness would have to get before he could qualify for compensation. "Oh, I'll probably be dead by then," the 68-year-old Las Vegan said.

The DOE worker compensation package, which is part of the Defense budget, leaves the decision of who receives benefits to the new president and DOE secretary, who will have up to six months to make the guidelines for coverage.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., addressed the group by phone from Washington D.C., where she said the bill, "was not what we hoped or fought for, but it's a start ... to compensate our Test Site Workers for what they suffered."

She said last-minute "shenanigans with a calculator" by House leaders to cut costs of the bill resulted in a compromise that, among other things, changed the X-ray classifications, making it more difficult to prove silicosis.

"Our challenge next year is to fix the X-ray classifications," Berkley said. "We can't continue to study this to death because we have people who are dying to death."

There are two other ways to qualify for benefits -- victims can obtain proof from another computer-assisted diagnostic technique or a written diagnosis accompanied by a lung biopsy.

And Michaels told the group that in cases where DOE records are missing or incomplete -- which a number of workers said was par for the course -- "the benefit of the doubt" goes to the worker, according to the legislation.

Still, the legislation is so vague many DOE workers and their families are worried that the $25 million package won't cover the estimated 4,000 eligible employees.

"There is no question there are going to be some huge problems doing this," Michaels told the gathering. "We will do as well as we can and see what happens."

Hundreds of Southern Nevada workers have been screened at no charge during the past three years in Las Vegas by the Boston University School of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco. Scores more will be tested locally in December and March.