Board OKs expanded compensation for ill Hanford nuclear workers

By Annette Cary, H.erald staff writer

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.

The eased rules could help some workers or their survivors who have previously had their claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Program denied. It also could resolve claims that have been stuck unresolved in the federal system for years and could help some middle-aged Hanford workers and recent retirees who yet may develop cancer.

Under the compensation program, Hanford workers who develop cancer have received $150,000 compensation and medical coverage only if the federal government concluded that an estimate of their individual radiation exposure was high enough that there was at least a 50 percent chance it caused their cancer.

But if radiation exposure cannot be reliably estimated for groups of workers, a special exposure cohort may be declared by the secretary of Health and Human Services. Workers who developed any of about 20 types of cancers then are automatically compensated without a radiation exposure estimate.

A U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, report concluded that from late 1943 through mid 1972 adequate monitoring was not done to determine workers exposure to three radioactive isotopes -- purified polonium, thorium and neptunium -- used in special programs during those years.

Security and classification issues have slowed the release of DOE Hanford documents to NIOSH and some data still is coming in, so additional monitoring inadequacies still may come to light, said Samuel Glover, a health physicist for NIOSH. There are concerns not just about the three isotopes in the specialty program but also about adequate monitoring data from other exposure, such as from highly enriched uranium, uranium 233, promethium, and from neutron exposure.

But the findings for polonium, thorium and neptunium were adequate to form a long and broad special exposure cohort, NIOSH concluded. It will continue to look at potential inadequacies in estimates for years past 1972 to possibly recommend special exposure cohorts for additional groups of workers.

Polonium 210, the same substance used to poison Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, was generated in Hanford reactors starting during World War II through the activation of bismuth metal. Workers may have called it "postum." Polonium provides a catalyst for the reaction that detonates the plutonium in a nuclear weapon.

Thorium was used at Hanford to help control nuclear reactions and also was used in two campaigns to produce uranium 233 for a proposed new type of nuclear weapon.

Neptunium 237 was irradiated at Hanford to produce plutonium 238, which is used is used in the nation's space program to provide power on deep space flights.

Although radiological work was only done in certain areas at Hanford, it became apparent that the Department of Energy could not identify which workers went into certain areas at least periodically, said Samuel Glover, a health physicist for NIOSH.

The expansion of automatic payments should help employees, such as security guards and craft workers, who have had trouble showing where their daily work took them. It also will add more years to the program.

Three previous special exposure cohorts cover Hanford workers in certain areas until shortly after World War II, in the 300 Area just north of Richland from September 1946 through 1961 and in the 200 Area in central Hanford from 1949 through 1968.

Assuming that the expanded special exposure cohort is approved as expected, the Department of Labor then will make rules to determine which areas are considered part of Hanford. At issue could be locations such as the Federal Building in downtown Richland, where workers were not exposed to radiation related to Hanford work. But there is concern that workers based at the Federal Building also might have been required to perform some of their job duties at areas of Hanford where they could have been exposed to workplace radiation.

The special exposure cohorts cover cancers linked to radiation through previous medical research. Cancers that qualify, with some restrictions, include bone cancer, renal cancer, some leukemias, some lung cancers, multiple myeloma, some lymphomas and primary cancer of the bile ducts, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gall bladder, ovary, pancreas, pharynx, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid, urinary bladder and liver.

Although the vote by the NIOSH Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health was unanimous in recommending the expanded special exposure cohort Tuesday, two members with Hanford ties, Wanda Munn and Josie Beach, were not allowed to participate.

To date the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has paid $492 million to ill workers at Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory or their survivors in either compensation or medical payments.

For information on applying for the compensation program, call the Hanford Resource Center at 946-3333 or 888-654-0014.

w Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald. com; More Hanford news at hanfordnews.com.

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Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Board OKs expanded compensation for ill Hanford nuclear workers

By Annette Cary, H.erald staff writer