Barack Obama

Obama Statement on Efforts to Assist Former Blockson Chemical Plant Workers

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michael Ortiz, 202 228 5566

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama today released the following update on his efforts to ensure that the workers from the former Blockson Chemical plant in Braidwood, Illinois are informed about claims they have filed with the U.S. Department of Labor under the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH), which by law reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and is appointed by the President, is holding a meeting April 7-9 in Tampa, Florida. While the Advisory Board will discuss issues related to several former nuclear weapons sites around the country, one of the items on their agenda is the Blockson Chemical Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) petition.

"After these Blockson Chemical plant workers and their families have already suffered through so much, we owe it them make sure the government takes a second look at all of the claims that were denied," said Senator Obama. "I call on the Advisory Board to approve the petition, and ensure that everyone is compensated. But, if the petition is not granted, I am pleased to know these denied claims will at least be reopened and recalculated." I am committed to these Illinoisans' claims, and will do everything I can to keep their chances of compensation alive."

The EEOICPA, which was enacted in 2000, is designed to provide compensation to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who worked on the U.S. government's nuclear weapons development program during the Cold War. Many of these workers were often exposed to harmful radiation, without their knowledge, and now suffer from cancer and other debilitating illnesses. The U.S. Department of Labor administers the EEOICPA program, while the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administers the dose reconstruction aspect of the program.

The EEOICPA law provides two ways for workers or their survivors to be compensated: individually or as part of a larger group. For individuals, through a process called "dose reconstruction," NIOSH estimates the exposure workers were subjected to using mathematical models based on available data, such as contracts, purchase orders, safety monitoring records and worker medical records.

However, if workers believe the government cannot accurately perform the dose reconstructions, a petitioner can file a Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) petition on behalf of a group of workers. This petition is filed with NIOSH. Once NIOSH completes an evaluation of a petition, NIOSH presents its report to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH). If the Advisory Board, which currently has twelve members, determines that the government cannot accurately complete dose reconstructions, then by majority vote the Board will send a report with its recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If the Advisory Board sides with the government's argument that dose reconstructions can be performed with sufficient accuracy, the Board will vote to recommend denial of the SEC petition. On its own initiative, NIOSH can advise, and in the past has advised, the Advisory Board that it could not perform dose reconstructions and thus has recommended that a class of claimants be compensated via an SEC. The Secretary of Health and Human Services makes the ultimate determination as to whether a petition should be approved or denied.

In the case of Blockson Chemical, an SEC petition has been submitted. The Advisory Board met in 2006 in Naperville, IL, where Senator Obama addressed the Board and advocated on behalf of workers at several Illinois nuclear weapons sites, including Blockson Chemical. At that time, Senator Obama pressed the government to hold worker outreach meetings with Blockson workers to hear first-hand accounts of what transpired at Blockson, to seek the counsel of an outside auditor as to the accuracy of the dose reconstructions being performed on Blockson claims, and to delay voting by the Advisory Board until the Board's independent auditor could perform a full review.

"NIOSH has contended that there is sufficient information to conduct a dose reconstruction by calculating the radiation that the Blockson employees were exposed to based on radiation that workers at an unrelated factory were exposed to and on urinalysis data from some, but not all, Blockson workers. I confess I'm not a radiation expert. There are some around this table who are. But it does strike me that this is a somewhat suspect way at arriving at whether Blockson workers were sufficiently exposed to deserve compensation. It also seems to me to be contrary to the intent of the original legislation governing this compensation program, and I'd strongly urge the Board to review this policy.

I'm also concerned that no official worker outreach meeting was conducted with the Blockson workers. Seems to me that if you're going to do a dose reconstruction, you'd want to talk to all the workers, find out what evidence they have, and give them all a chance to comment on the procedure you're going to follow. So as a consequence I would urge the Board to postpone its decision regarding the Blockson SEC petition until after the Board's independent auditor has had a chance to review NIOSH's arguments."

(Comments delivered by Senator Obama to the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, December 12, 2006, Naperville, IL)

All of Senator Obama's requests were agreed to by the Board and NIOSH.

At present, the Blockson claimant who filed the SEC petition has defined the SEC class as "All Atomic Weapons Employers employees, contractors and subcontractors, who worked in Building 55 at the Blockson Chemical Company (also known as Olin Mathieson) from January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1962."

However, after discussions between NIOSH and the Department of Labor, the following class definition was offered and used by NIOSH in its evaluation: "All Atomic Weapons Employers personnel who worked on activities related to the production of uranium at Blockson Chemical Company, Joliet, IL from January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1962."

In terms of compensation, whether it is through the individual dose reconstruction process or via an SEC petition, workers who are approved for payment receive $150,000 plus medical benefits. It is important to stress that the Secretary of Health and Human Services decides who will, or will not, be in any class which receives compensation, although the Advisory Board's recommendation is an important part of his decision.

With respect to the SEC petition, the Advisory Board has several options. It can: 1) approve the petition according to the petitioner's definition; 2) approve the petition according to the governments proposed definition; 3) approve the petition with a new definition, drafted by the Board; 4) deny the petition in its entirety; or 5) delay voting on the petition to a subsequent meeting. Following next week's meeting in Tampa, the next Advisory Board meeting will be held in June in St. Louis. The date and location are undetermined.

To date, based on radiation dose reconstructions completed by NIOSH, the Department of Labor has approved 20 Blockson claims for payment and 91 claims have been denied. However, at Senator Obama's request, in late 2006 the Advisory Board sought and received a review by the Advisory Board's independent auditor (Sanford Cohen & Associates) as to the technical approach used by NIOSH to calculate Blockson dose reconstructions.

After a thorough review, Sanford Cohen & Associates recommended seven changes to the dose reconstruction process. As a result, if the Advisory Board does not approve the Blockson SEC, NIOSH will automatically re-calculate the 91 dose reconstructions previously denied in order to include these new recommendations. Any claimant who has already received compensation would not have his or her dose reconstruction re-calculated and the compensation decision would stand.

Senator Obama's staffer, who handles nuclear weapons worker compensation issues, will be in Tampa, Florida to monitor the Board's deliberations and speak on the workers' behalf.