Government to consider Hanford petition for former weapons workers
RICHLAND - Two sisters, whose father was a former Hanford worker and died of colon cancer, have filed a petition they hope will make it easier for Hanford workers to get compensation for cancers potentially caused by radiation exposure.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, agreed the petition included all required information to be reviewed. The agency now has 180 days to evaluate it.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., urged the agency Thursday to give the petition a thorough and fair review.
"Too many of these workers have waited years for help," Cantwell said in a statement. "We need to get them the help they deserve without any further delays."
NIOSH has been struggling for years to gather data on the amount of radiation that Cold War-era workers in nuclear weapons plants may have been exposed to at Energy Department sites nationwide. That includes Hanford, which the federal government created in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.
Hanford workers and their survivors currently receive compensation for radiation-related cancers only if the federal government determines there is at least a 50 percent chance that radiation exposure at work caused the cancer.
However, certain workers at other weapons sites don't have to meet that threshold because the federal government determined it is not feasible to determine whether radiation likely caused their illness, often because monitoring was inadequate or records are not available.
A 2005 audit at the Hanford site also found insufficient data about workers' radiation exposure between 1944 and 1968.
Rosemary Hoyt, of Lyle, and her sister, Mary Ann Carrico, believe their father's death at the age of 47 likely was caused by working at Hanford. He did construction and maintenance work at the nuclear reservation from 1942 until 1961, when he could no longer pass the physical because of colon cancer, Hoyt said.
She and her sister applied for compensation, but have twice been denied. When their father's estimated dose of radiation was compiled using available historical records, the government decided the chance of the cancer being caused by Hanford radiation exposure was just 41 percent.
The family does not have a history of cancer, Hoyt said.
The petition they have filed covers all Hanford employees from 1942 through 1990 who developed any of 22 cancers. The workers, or their survivors, would be eligible for $150,000 in compensation from the federal government and coverage of medical expenses.
To date under the current guidelines, 496 Hanford workers or their survivors have received the $150,000 payment because they developed cancer or berylliosis, a rare lung disease.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, agreed the petition included all required information to be reviewed. The agency now has 180 days to evaluate it.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., urged the agency Thursday to give the petition a thorough and fair review.
"Too many of these workers have waited years for help," Cantwell said in a statement. "We need to get them the help they deserve without any further delays."
NIOSH has been struggling for years to gather data on the amount of radiation that Cold War-era workers in nuclear weapons plants may have been exposed to at Energy Department sites nationwide. That includes Hanford, which the federal government created in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.
Hanford workers and their survivors currently receive compensation for radiation-related cancers only if the federal government determines there is at least a 50 percent chance that radiation exposure at work caused the cancer.
However, certain workers at other weapons sites don't have to meet that threshold because the federal government determined it is not feasible to determine whether radiation likely caused their illness, often because monitoring was inadequate or records are not available.
A 2005 audit at the Hanford site also found insufficient data about workers' radiation exposure between 1944 and 1968.
Rosemary Hoyt, of Lyle, and her sister, Mary Ann Carrico, believe their father's death at the age of 47 likely was caused by working at Hanford. He did construction and maintenance work at the nuclear reservation from 1942 until 1961, when he could no longer pass the physical because of colon cancer, Hoyt said.
She and her sister applied for compensation, but have twice been denied. When their father's estimated dose of radiation was compiled using available historical records, the government decided the chance of the cancer being caused by Hanford radiation exposure was just 41 percent.
The family does not have a history of cancer, Hoyt said.
The petition they have filed covers all Hanford employees from 1942 through 1990 who developed any of 22 cancers. The workers, or their survivors, would be eligible for $150,000 in compensation from the federal government and coverage of medical expenses.
To date under the current guidelines, 496 Hanford workers or their survivors have received the $150,000 payment because they developed cancer or berylliosis, a rare lung disease.