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DEMOLISHED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Are Radioactive Materials Still Affecting Huntington Workers Who in 2006 Alleged Cancer Clusters from 2004? - Huntington News Network
During the Cold War, Huntington contained a DOE plant involved in the production of radioactive and/or potentially nuclear materials. After its decommissioning, the remains --- except for the compressor building --- were hauled away and buried in Piketon, Ohio.
During a 2006 meeting with union members representatives of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office of Compensation Analysis and support discussed compensation for health conditions acquired due to working near contaminated materials.
After an exhaustive search of the internet, HNN at this time emphasizes the official analysis that current potential radiation exposure --- even at the remaining Compressor Building ---- was/is considered negligible as it results in an annual dose of less than 1 m/rem to the maximally exposure organ. (Based on CDC/OSAS documents)
However, worker reports taken from the 2006 meeting create unanswered questions. In fact, the internet search did NOT turn up further documents related to the local USWA and NIOSH.
Thus, we have a series of unanswered (or unfound) questions raised by those in attendance.
Union Workers Alleged Use of Contaminated Materials Before DOE Plant Buried in Portsmouth, Ohio - Huntington News Network
Places Where Snow Does Not Stick Remain; Residual Radiation Claim Made Regarding Another Manufacturer; 73 Huntington Workers Filed Claims in 2006
Huntington, WV (HNN) -- USA TODAY’s investigative “Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America’s Schools” ---used an EPA model to show toxic air near America’s 128,000 schools. The article listed numerous Huntington schools in the First Percentile of schools with worse air. For instance, the Cabell County Career Technology Center was ranked 56 of 127,809 schools for worst air.
Other Cabell County Schools in the First (Worst) Percentile included Alternative Education High/Middle School (old HEHS), Altizer Elementary, Beverly Hills Middle School, Enslow Middle School, Highlawn Elementary School, Hite Saunders Elementary, Meadows Elementary, and Spring Hill Elementary. http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/school/96893 and, response of Cabell County School Board, http://www.huntingtonnews.net/state/090401-rutherford-stateairquality.html
Nickel and nickel compounds are listed by USA Today as 89% responsible for “toxicity outside this school.”
During an UNRELATED inspection of public documents available on the internet, HNN found one from 2006 alleging possible continuing contamination from the former secret uranium processing plant in Altizer known as the Huntington Pilot Plant (a.k.a. Reduction Pilot Plant, HPP, or IPP ) The AEC Site consisted of 3.2 acres located east of International Nickel Company’s “Huntington Works” plant. The property was bounded on the north by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, on the east by Cole Street, on the south by Altizer Avenue, and on the west by the “Huntington Works” site. The plant was enclosed by a chain link fence. Based on final minutes of an April 17, 2006 Rollout Meeting for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Dose Reconstruction Project for the Huntington Pilot Plant, the following historic descriptive profile is included:
Former nuclear workers win step toward payments | NevadaAppeal.com
Sen. Harry Reid says the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is changing position to support a key measure for compensating sick former Nevada Test Site workers.
Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday the next step is for the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health to approve the NIOSH “special cohort status” recommendation next month.
The designation lets case evaluators attribute illnesses to work at the nation's nuclear proving ground north of Las Vegas without a cumbersome government “dose reconstruction” process.
Former workers complain sick colleagues are dying while the government slowly processes claims for medical benefits and $150,000 payments under a program created by Congress in 2001.
NIOSH has estimated about 500 of workers from the years of underground nuclear tests, 1963 to 1992, could qualify.
Cancer testing effort returns | chillicothegazette.com | Chillicothe Gazette
Nobody has to convince Edna Brackey how important the mobile Early Cancer Detection Program discontinued at the end of 2006 really was.
"I really owe eight years of a very enjoyable life to this program," said Brackey, who will turn 90 next summer, during a ceremony Thursday announcing the resumption of the testing program for current and former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers
Brackey, like many who develop lung cancer, had no visible early symptoms of the disease, although she did have a prior problem with a cancer in her mouth. Due to the testing program that was in place in Piketon in 2001, however, a very small cancerous mass in her lung was detected with the free CT scan.
Sick worker advocates seek rules changes | knoxnews.com
According to info distributed by the Alliance of Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups, ANWAG and the action groups at Linde Ceramics are petitioning NIOSH and the Dept. of Labor to make rules changes in the administration of the sick nuclear worker compensation program.
"Congress never intended this program to develop into the ongoing and overwhelming burden it has become for sickened nuclear weapons workers or their survivors," Terrie Barrie of ANWAG said in a statement. "Congress was well aware when they passed EEOICPA that the Department of Energy did not keep adequate exposure records, particularly for chemicals and heavy metals. Yet, DOL requires claimants to provide proof of exposure where none exists. It is long past due to return this program to the original intent of the law."
Worcester Telegram & Gazette: US to compensate Norton workers
At least 19 Norton Co. workers who have cancer - perhaps caused through exposure five decades ago to nuclear materials such as uranium and thorium - will receive compensation and benefits from the federal government. Their survivors may be eligible as well.\n\nThe U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday that all former Norton Co. employees who worked at the Worcester plant between Jan. 1, 1945, and Dec. 31, 1957, are part of a "special exposure cohort" that entitles them to the compensation and benefits.\n\nTo be eligible, workers must have worked for at least 250 days at the plant, according to Michael Volpe, a Department of Labor spokesman. The workers must also have developed one of 22 cancers considered likely to have been caused by exposure to radioactive material. Those cancers include lung cancer, leukemia, bone cancer, liver cancer, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, renal cancer, as well as a long list of other cancers.
Kansas City News - As Honeywell closes its 60-year-old site, workers are dealing with the fatal aftereffects - page 1
Tony Ross' bat connected, sending the softball rocketing to the fence. While the outfielders scrambled after what should have been a home run, Ross stopped at second, doubled over and gasped for breath. Then he sat down on the base.
The two teams playing were made up of machinists, custodians and guards from the late shift at the Bannister Federal Complex in south Kansas City. They had met, as usual, around midnight on the baseball diamond at the nearby Hickman Mills High School to play until four or five in the morning.
US Department of Interior Issues Grants to Marshall Islands :: Everything Marshall Islands :: http://www.yokwe.net
DOI's Insular Affairs Assistant Secretary, Tony Babauta made available $1 million to support the Prior Service Trust Fund Administration. The PSTFA administers benefit payments to individuals in the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau who worked for the U.S. Department of the Navy and the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The program is designed to provide social security-type benefits to former employees of the TTPI government (or the predecessor-U.S. Navy administration) who were employed for at least five full years prior to 1968, when a TTPI Social Security System was created. The program also provides benefits to survivors of the former employees.
solomonstarnews.com - Compo unlikely for Bikini Islanders, fears lawyer
The lawyer acting for Bikini Islanders says there is little hope their case will go to the US Supreme Court as they seek compensation for the 23 US nuclear weapons tests carried on their atoll.
The Bikinians filed suit in the US Federal Court of Claims in 2006 after a Nuclear Claims Tribunal issued a 563 million US dollar damage award in their favour but did not have the money to pay it.
The Bikinians contend that the US Congress cannot take away their US Constitution Fifth Amendment protections for just compensation payments for
damage the nuclear tests did to their islands.
But the US Justice Department said in earlier court hearings that the US Congress provided a full and final settlement through a 150 million US dollar compensation fund in a Compact of Free Association approved by the US and Marshall Islands governments in 1986.
The Tribunal proved incapable of paying even one percent of the compensation.
The atoll is still uninhabited because of radiation contamination.--RNZI
Radiation victims' vigil at Skinner Plaza - KUAM.com-KUAM News: On Air. Online. On Demand.
The Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors will hold a candlelight vigil ceremony at Skinner Plaza in Hagatna tomorrow. On November 1, 1952, the first hydrogen bomb was detonated in the Marshall Islands and three days later, nuclear fallout contained high levels of radiation.
PARS President Robert Celestial says every year a vigil is held to pray for those who passed on as a result of radiation exposure and also push for the passage of H.R. 1630, which was introduced by Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo back in March. Celestial said, "It's to amend the law to include Guam in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
"In 2005, the National Research Council identified and reported to Congress that Guam and residents during that time period from 1946 through 1974 are eligible for this restitution."
The vigil begins at 6:30 tomorrow evening at the Skinner Plaza.
Hanford News: More Hanford workers could be compensated
Less than 10 percent of former Hanford construction workers who likely would qualify for compensation for illnesses have applied to a federal program, said a Building Trades National Medical Screening Program official.
Representatives of the program held a meeting in Pasco on Wednesday night to discuss the screening and a Department of Labor program that provides compensation for Hanford workers who developed illnesses because of exposure to radiation or hazardous chemicals at the nuclear reservation. Nearly 100 attended.
As many as 25,000 former Hanford building trades workers may have developed illnesses covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, said Knut Ringen, principal investigator for the building trades screening program. But he estimated that less than 10 percent of those have applied.
Special cohort needed for Hanford workers - Opinions | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
We're not nuclear scientists or radiation experts, but we're willing to accept the recommendation from those who are -- especially after years of study.
Congress should approve the special exposure cohort for Hanford workers currently being recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
A special cohort would make automatic $150,000 in compensation and extend medical coverage to potentially hundreds of sick Hanford workers who were employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972.
In the case of deceased workers, surviving family may be eligible for the payment.
Advisory board recommends Special Exposure Cohort for Oak Ridge Hospital workers, 1950-59 | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health today recommended that Oak Ridge Hospital workers, 1950-59, be desigated a Special Exposure Cohort, NIOSH spokeswoman Shannon Bradford said.
The ruling is based on the likelihood they were exposed to chronic levels of radiation. The SEC status, if it stands, would make it easier for those workers with cancer to receive compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
The advisory board concurred with an earlier recommendation from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and now it will be sent to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who will make a recommendation to Congress, Bradford said. If Congress doesn't act within 30 days, the secretary's recommendation stands, she said.
Senator seeks more compensation for state nuclear energy workers | coshoctontribune.com | Coshocton Tribune
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown unveiled legislation Tuesday that would extend occupational illness-related compensation and health benefits to hundreds of former employees at two Cold War-era nuclear facilities in Ohio.
The Ohio Democrat's proposal would extend a special designation to the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald and the Piqua Organic Moderated Reactor in Piqua so that former workers suffering from certain forms of cancer would automatically qualify for compensation.
Under current law, compensation is paid only if there is evidence the cancer was likely caused by radiation exposure.
"Former energy workers battling cancer should not have to struggle to receive the benefits to which they are entitled," Brown said.
Board OKs expanded compensation for ill Hanford nuclear workers - Breaking News - Yahoo | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
A compensation program for ill nuclear workers won key approval Tuesday to offer automatic $150,000 payments to potentially hundreds more Hanford workers or their survivors.
An advisory committee to the federal government meeting in New York voted unanimously to further ease compensation requirements for Hanford workers who may have developed any of a wide range of cancers due to radiation exposure on the job. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, now is expected to recommend the eased rules, called a special exposure cohort, to Congress.
If Congress does not object, the special exposure cohort would be formed.
Under the special exposure cohort, automatic $150,000 compensation and medical coverage would be extended to any Hanford worker who was employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972. That's more inclusive than previous decisions to ease rules only for workers assigned to specific Hanford areas for certain of those years.
Radiation victims lose compensation
Court rules damages paid earlier 'adequate'
Twelve victims of radiation poisoning have lost their appeal for 12 million baht in compensation from an engineering and electrical equipment distributor over its reckless storage of radioactive materials.
Sonthaya: Right hand crippled SURAPOL PROMSAKA NA SAKOLNAKORN
The members of the group claimed Kamol Sukosol Electric Co Ltd was negligent when it stored radioactive materials not properly secured in its car park.
This allowed a cylinder of cobalt-60 - a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer - to be stolen from the company property.
But the Appeals Court yesterday ruled in the company's favour saying the 640,276 baht in compensation the Civil Court had earlier ordered Kamol Sukosol to pay was sufficient.
The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO - Cold War-era nuclear workers recognized
An event in eastern Missouri will join other U.S. observances of the service of Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers.
Several hundred workers, or their survivors and friends, are expected to attend ceremonies Oct. 30 in Weldon Spring during the first National Day of Remembrance.
Congress dedicated the day to recognize the sacrifices of nuclear weapons and uranium workers from more than 300 U.S. facilities, many of them disabled or dead from exposure to radiation or other toxins.
Event organizer Denise Brock says $4 billion has been paid to workers or their survivors nationwide, including $200 million in Missouri, as federal compensation for the harm since 2000.
The event will include a tree dedication and wreath laying, as well as signups for free medical screenings.
Downwinders: Include Guam in law; Radiation survivors group meets | guampdn.com | Pacific Daily News
A group of island residents and members of the Pacific Association for Radiation Survivors met yesterday to discuss legislation that proposes to include Guam in the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
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The federal RECA law, passed in 1990, compensates people who have been diagnosed with specific cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to agents associated with nuclear weapons testing, according to a 2005 report published by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council.
The law covers exposure to nuclear tests carried out for more than 20 years during and after World War II. According to the report, both on-site participants of above-ground nuclear tests and "downwinders" in areas designated by RECA are eligible for compensation.
Areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona are covered in the law as "Downwind Counties," the report states.
Apology sought for abuse at Fernald School - Waltham, MA - Wicked Local Waltham
In the dark past of the Fernald School for the disabled, the nation's oldest publicly funded facility for those with developmental disabilities, some children were subject to Cold War experiments including being fed radioactive cereal while other patients allegedly were tagged as "morons" even as tests showed them to be normal.
Now two Massachusetts lawmakers want the state to do right by the former residents of the controversial Fernald School, which opened in 1848 and is slated to closed next year.
State Rep. Thomas Sannicandro, D-Ashland, has filed a bill that would require the state to apologize for alleged civil rights violations among patients at the Waltham facility. And state Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, has filed a bill calling for a formal investigation of the misclassification of patients there.
Both bills will be heard during a hearing Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities.
The Hawk Eye: Former IAAP worker hopes compensation denials come to end
Former IAAP worker hopes compensation denials come to end
John Rowe is learning the hard way that two out of three isn't enough.
The longtime Burlington resident has been denied compensation since 2003 from a federal program for former atomic energy workers.
While he still has one application pending -- for a brain tumor near his pituitary gland -- Rowe isn't optimistic that this time will be any different than before.
Rowe, 82, has been experiencing deja vu since his first denial on May 6, 2004.
The letters are always the same. The Department of Labor agrees he worked at the Iowa Ordnance Plant more than the requisite length of time and that he's a very sick man. But the department doesn't see a link between his illnesses and work on Line 1.
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