Mar. 02, 2005 - 19:06 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Umpteenth Verse ?

A few days ago in an article by Anne Imse of the Rocky Mountain News she brought this out in an article of February 16, in part:

Union cites damage from heated plutonium

" Union leaders at Rocky Flats say that some workers unknowingly breathed a recently discovered form of plutonium that can damage their lungs for 20 years before the body expels it."

"Called high-fired plutonium oxide, it was formed by extreme heat during bomb making, or by one of the plant's many accidental fires. Larger blazes spread this contamination throughout the buildings that caught fire, a petition to the federal government released on Tuesday says."

"In the petition, the union says that even workers who have been demolishing the former nuclear weapons plant since 1995 have been exposed to this form of plutonium in fire-contaminated buildings."

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This morning's article by the same lady covers the meeting Tuesday night of Labor and nuclear workers from Rocky Flats. In part:

Sick workers seek answers

"After five years of waiting for bureaucrats to fulfill congressional orders to pay compensation to sick and dying workers who built bombs at Rocky Flats, it didn't take long for tempers and tears to show Tuesday night at a meeting to discuss the latest program changes."

"Laura Schultz, a Rocky Flats engineer on oxygen and suffering from a multitude of ailments including cancer, seizures and stomach problems, was shaking with frustration halfway through the meeting over a requirement for proof that the condition was caused by radioactive and toxic chemicals at the highly secretive plant."

"We don't know what we were exposed to," she TRIED TO EXPLAIN to Labor officials who had called the meeting. "It was on a need to know basis."

"So how, she asked, can she prove a connection to the chemicals when no one told her what they were ?"

"IN the public meeting Tuesday night, Labor's task force manager for the changeover (Department of Energy to Labor) Rachel Leiton, was asked, "How long will it be after we file to get a decision ?"

"I don't know," she replied."

"Can you give me an approximation ?"

"We don't know how easy it will be to get information," she said.

"But after the meeting, Leiton told the Rocky Mountain News that Labor has a GOAL of paying 1,200 claims this year and catching up on the entire backlog of applications transferred from the Department of Energy within two years."

"But Leiton could not make any estimate when Labor will finish the still-pending cancer claims to the original Labor program, because they have been in the hands of another government agency, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health."

"NIOSH must try to calculate each worker's radiation contamination, based on often-INCOMPLETE and INACCURATE records, and then decide if that caused the person's cancer, before Labor can pay the claim."

"A NIOSH science official at the meeting, Jim Neton, could not give a date for completing the work, though last year officials estimated the work would take until 2008. He said NIOSH now is discussing deadlines with its contractor.

"Leiton did promise that Labor will do a better job of figuring out just what chemicals were used at Rocky Flats and what damage they do to the human body. And she promised to review denials by the Department of Energy."

"One worker, whose claim was denied, asked if the same "idiots" would be reviewing his claim now, Leiton promised fresh eyes."

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Fresh eyes anyone ? ? ? ? Huh - - - "Labor will do a better job of figuring out what chemicals were used at Rocky Flats amd what damage they do to the human body." Yeah right, so the studies and investigations will still have botched records to obfuscate things even further. Opinions handed out freely here.

Seems to be a governmental characteristic to flail around, make excuses and drag feet. In this case there are folks who are coming down with ailments far above the national rate of any of them. To boot, some are dying, in pain as time goes on.

Seems to me that the government could get on the ball and forget claims and lawsuits and all that stuff and just jump in and help the people who put their lives and welfare on the line to work in that vile industry. Pay their bills, keep them comfortable, give them the care they need. Unemployment compensation ? Heh, they need to be taken care of. I have a nephew who has been on oxygen for some number of years, he worked at Rocky Flats, I have an ex-son-in-law who worked out there machining beryllium who breathed the dust and ingested some too, whose physical condition is terrible but is still on his feet when he feels up to it, neither of them complaining, just doing the best they can. So will this be like the row about American Indian cheating by the government ? Go on and on for the Umpteenth Verse ? . . . . . . . . .

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