REGARDING A PETITION FOR
CONGRESS TO END THE NEGLIGENT DELAY OF THE PROMISED COMPENSATION AWARDS AND
MEDICAL BENEFITS TO THE NUCLEAR FACILITY WORKERS WHO WERE
MADE ILL FROM THEIR SERVICE TO THEIR COUNTRY.
THE
U.S.
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DEEMED THE ESTIMATED 600,000 NUCLEAR FACILITY WORKFORCE,
“COURAGEOUS COLD WAR VETERANS”.
The
implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
Act of 2000, as amended, (EEOICPA) has been fraught with mismanagement,
violations of due process, misrepresentation, and misplacement of
workers’ medical and dosimetry records. The responsible federal agencies --
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) and the Department of Labor (DOL) -- have, for seven years,
followed policies that have resulted in delaying compensation for thousands of
workers who served in The Cold War at the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex.
Dose reconstruction is a failure. NIOSH and their contractors failed to
fully research documents needed for the site profiles; and when presented with
other evidence, ignored it. Their first attempts at developing scientific
methods to reconstruct dose were rejected by the Advisory Board on Radiation and
Worker's Health (ABRWH) and the Board's auditing contractor. NIOSH will now
potentially need to rework thousands of denied claims, thereby ensuring the
government workforce job security. This is a waste of taxpayer dollars and an
emotional / financial hardship for the claimants.
Serious civil and/or criminal issues regarding conflicts of interest exist
within the federal agencies and the contractors they've hired to implement
EEOICPA. One major conflict of interest - and one likely reason EEOICPA is mired
in complications - is the double role of ABRWH's auditing contractor, Sanford,
Cohen and Associates (SC&A). This particular consulting firm has received
multiple contracts from DOE among other federal agencies. How can SC&A not have
a bias? How could no one in the government have caught this? THIS SHOWS A
BLATANT AND INTENTIONAL COLLUSION BETWEEN THE
U.S. GOVERNMENT AND ITS CONTRACTORS TO PROLONG THE COMPENSATION PROCESS. More
complications mean more MONEY for both the agencies and the contractors. More
money has been paid to the federal agencies and their contractors than to the
workers.
Additionally, it has also been clearly documented that there still remains
the problem with the "Burden of Proof" under Part E of the compensation program.
Thousands of workers at these nuclear facilities were unknowingly exposed to
toxic substances that caused their relevant disease(s). If all of the unique
nuclear facility workforce were sickened by their nuclear facility work place
exposures to radiation and chemical toxins, then, "Special Exposure Cohort"
(SEC) status should be eliminated. All cancers should be qualified. Under the
Final Rules (FR) released in
December 29, 2006,
it is stated that the worker must prove a causal relationship between their
claimed illness(es) and the date, time and place that their exposure(s) took
place. These workers simply CANNOT prove when or where their exposures took
place, and their attending physicians CANNOT and WILL NOT be able to prove these
exposures either. These physicians simply DO NOT have access to information or
documents regarding the conditions and toxins at these facilities. This, too,
has further blocked due compensation. DOL had violated thousands of claimants'
due process rights by adjudicating claims prior to the Site Exposure Matrices
(SEM) were made available to the claims examiners. The SEM's are known to be
incomplete and unreliable. The claims examiners own DOL supervisors are aware
that their subordinates are not capable of evaluating the SEM's technical
aspects. The claims' examiners fail to prove that they are qualified
adjudicators with legal authority to determine conclusions of law edicts. The
claims' examiners merely act on at the direction of their conflicting
supervisor.
Therefore, we the undersigned, declare the government is in default of the dose reconstruction, wage loss, and impairment clauses of the contract made between the U.S. government and the workers as outlined within the EEOICPA.
Without further delay or application, we, the undersigned, demand that each worker that has been defined under the EEOICPA be compensated $400,000.00, and awarded continuing and complete medical benefits as owed by the government under the contract.
IN MEMORIAM OF THE DECEASED NUCLEAR FACILITY WORKERS FROM THE 1940S TO PRESENT DAY.
Drafted this 5th day of December, 2007,
By:
National Nuclear Workers for Justice
(NNWJ)
&
Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security
(P.R.E.S.S.)
P.O. Box 136
Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
*With input by Workers from Rocky Flats,
Hanford, Idaho, Paducah, Portsmouth and the Pinellas Plant
Contact: Vina Colley at
vcolley@earthlink.net or Terri Ann Smith at (304) 429-2053
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