Contact: Rob Ostrander 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Monday, February 7, 2005

ST. LOUIS, MO Senator Kit Bond today testified on behalf of former Mallinckrodt employees in front of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and its Advisory Board on Radiation Safety and Worker Health. NIOSH and its Advisory Board are in St. Louis this week to hear testimony and recommend a decision on the downtown St. Louis Mallinckrodt site. Bond outlined compelling new evidence in the former Cold War workers case and called for full coverage for the employees.

“Even before new evidence came to light, the case for former Mallinckrodt workers was strong. With these recent discoveries I am even more convinced. These cold war warriors have waited over 50 years for help and the only acceptable decision for NIOSH and the Advisory Board to make this week will allow for their immediate compensation from the federal government,” said Bond.

Bond emphasized that in addition to the already compelling existing evidence in the Mallinckrodt workers’ case, new evidence has been uncovered by Bond’s office over the past year. The recently uncovered information includes:

• Documents identifying missing and possibly destroyed records at the Mallinckrodt Downtown site which would be critical to any matching of workers to job and exposure levels;

• A document from a Mallinckrodt official asking an AEC contractor to conceal or not include in his records the results of an important dust study at the downtown site as a way of limiting the company=s liability for exposing employees to high levels of radioactive dust;

• A Mallinckrodt document indicating that the company's laboratory will be unable to analyze routine urine samples of plant personnel and lab officials asking that these samples no longer be sent to them;

In addition to stressing the missing and destroyed records and incomplete lab work on the workers, Bond also admonished NIOSH for their administration of the Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). He pointed out that that over 30 Mallinckrodt workers died while waiting for dose reconstruction, the long, cumbersome and arduous bureaucratic process former energy workers who were exposed to high levels of radioactive materials must complete to receive coverage.

The 2000 EEOICPA was designed to compensate former energy workers, like those at Mallinckrodt, who were exposed to high levels of radioactive materials. One component involved creating Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) sites, a group of employees with specific cancers who worked with nuclear materials and are eligible for expedited medical cost payments of $150,000.

According to NIOSH there are two requirements for creating an SEC. One, if it is not feasible to estimate accurately the radiation dose employees received, and two, if there is a reasonable likelihood that such a radiation dose endangered the health of members of this class.

Convinced that the Mallinckrodt sites in Downtown St. Louis and Weldon Springs meet the criteria for a full cohort, Bond came close to winning SEC designation for the former workers through a legislative fix last year. Since then he has also been in contact with federal health officials to push the special designation. In addition to a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services urging immediate action, Bond has talked with Dr. John Howard, Director of NIOSH to make him aware of the new evidence he detailed today and his strong support for a special status for the workers.