'How Many More Workers Have to Die?'

by Mike Hall, AFL-CIO (reposted)

Thu, Jun 14, 2007 3:38PM

Thursday, June 14, 2007 : The war may have been "cold" but the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant that made atomic bombs for America's nuclear arsenal was "hot" with radiation that now, years after it was shut down, has killed and is killing former workers who have developed a wide range of cancers, according to the United Steelworkers ( USW ).

This week, a federal board, created specifically to help former workers in the nuclear weapons industry, denied some 3,000 former Rocky Flats workers and USW members immediate medical care and compensation. Instead, the workers will be forced to go through a time-consuming (742 days, on average), case-by-case process some estimate will cost the lives of one in 10 workers before compensation is approved.

After the board’s 6–4 ruling June 12, USW District 12 director Terry Bonds asks:

How many more workers have to die?

The USW petitioned the federal Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health for special status—known as “special exposure cohort” status for the 3,000 workers who say the daily radiation doses they received at Rocky Flats and through accidents and spills are the cause of their cancers. That designation would allow the stricken workers to bypass the long case-by-case process.

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For more information: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/14/how-many...

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