AP - 1/12/01

The Energy Department has released a list of 371 sites which handled beryllium or radioactive materials. They employed 600,000 people in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. Some were private companies working for the Energy Department or the Atomic Energy Commission.

Under a program approved by Congress last year, employees of facilities doing Energy Department work who contracted cancer as a result of radiation exposure, as well as those who contracted a lung disease from beryllium or silica, can receive government-paid medical care plus $150,000.

Workers who think they can relate radiation-related problems to their employment should contact the Energy Department at 877-447-9756 for further information.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 12, 2001

Answers

Ken, this is apparently part of some new program. Last year I received a claim form for Radon gas exposure from the time I worked in a uranium mine to put myself through college. Fourty years ago and no side effects, yet. (?)

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 13, 2001.

My grandfather-in-law one of the many collecting the $150K lump sum payment - has some sort of radiation poisening that ate out his sinus membranes. FYI, he worked at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tn for 40+ years.

Dr. thinks his wife may have a low level poisening too, just from doing his laundry all those years, but too hard to prove even if it was true.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), January 13, 2001.