FW: Miners: We¹re still getting the shaft

[Dolph Honicker]

FYI, Jeannine Honicker

>From: Kathy Helms >

>this ran Wednesday


INFO BOX
The Post-’71 Uranium Exposure Committee has been notified that its trip to 
Washington, D.C. is now scheduled for Nov. 1. The committee is still 
collecting surveys from Post’71 miners. Information is available at 
www.post71exposure.org or contact Liz Lucero at (505) 287-8759 or Linda 
Evers, (505) 287-2304.

>Miners: We¹re still getting the shaft
>
>By Kathy Helms
>Staff writer
>The Gallup Independent

>MILAN ‹ When Congress enacted the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in
>1990 and amended it in 2000, it failed to include workers employed after
>1971 who were exposed to radiation from activities related to uranium
>mining.
>
>Further expansion of RECA in November 2002 also disregarded Post-71 miners.
>But as of Aug. 1, the legislation is back on the table, and this time, if a
>group of radiation victims in Grants and Milan have anything to do with it,
>the federal government will no longer be able to exclude them with the
>stroke of a pen.
>
>Linda Evers of Milan, a Post-71 uranium miller who formerly worked for
>Kerr-McGee, has been designated as spokeswoman for the Post-71 Uranium
>Exposure Committee when the group travels to Washington in November with
>members of the Navajo Nation to lobby for changes in RECA.
>
>³I worked in the crusher department and at 32 was diagnosed with a
>degenerative bone disease that can only be connected to overexposure to
>radiation,² Evers said. She was living in Kansas at the time.
>
>³My orthopedic surgeon said there are only three things that cause this 
>kind
>of destruction on bones. He said, Œage,¹ which was not a factor, I was 32;
>Œfamily history¹ ‹ I have a 96-year-old grandmother that barely has
>arthritis, let alone anything degenerative; or Œoverexposure to radiation.¹
>
>³I used to work in the crusher, right out of high school at 18, and worked
>in the field until I was 24, and then went on and did something else 
>because
>they shut everything down here. I worked for Kerr-McGee. We had showers, 
>but
>we didn¹t have hot water. After you stand in a freezing crusher all night,
>the last thing you want is a frozen shower ‹ if there was any water at 
>all,²
>Evers said.
>
>³Our safety meetings consisted of CPR, burns, cuts, general first-aid. We
>never had any on radiation exposure.²
>
>Evers started out on the labor gang, spending her first 90 days working all
>over the mill.
>
>³I worked in yellowcake, I worked in the acid plant, I worked in a lot of
>places on the labor gang, but then when my 90 days there were up, they put
>me in the crusher.
>
>³My partner that was working in the crusher with me, I guess he was eight 
>or
>nine years older than me and was just out of the service. Now, he has just 
>a
>plethora of health problems. The medical bills are chewing him up and
>spitting him out because we don¹t have any compensation, and general
>insurance and Medicare do not cover this stuff,² she said.
>
>In 2004, professors at Utah State University published a report in the
>Journal of Health & Social Policy entitled ³Unfinished Business: Radiation
>Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) for Post-1971 U.S. Uranium Underground
>Miners.²
>
>The report examined the regulatory history and scientific evidence used for
>the passage of RECA and presented evidence supporting the inclusion of
>Post-71 miners.
>
>In October 2005 at a presentation on the Energy Employees Occupational
>Illness Compensation Program Act in Grants, former Kerr-McGee mine workers
>Antonio Sena and Margarito Martinez presented a copy of the report to
>representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of 
>Justice.
>
>³These are real finds by the people that were handling the RECA program 
>back
>in Washington. They were supposed to release this to the public, and
>apparently it was not done. It was blocked by the federal government,² Sena
>said.
>
>The report questioned why company exposure records were significantly lower
>than federal records. It also stated that the RECA legislation date of
>eligibility was based entirely on the federal government¹s uranium
>procurement program, rather than on scientific evidence of the relationship
>between exposures and health outcomes.
>
>Gary E. Madsen, PhD, and Susan E. Dawson, PhD, authors of the report, 
>argued
>that the federal government should include Post-71 miners in RECA since it
>did not develop ore stringent standards as suggested by its own health and
>safety agencies.
>
>³To exclude the post-1971 workers based on the procurement date is
>untenable,² they said.
>
>Sena said the Mine Enforcement and Safety Administration, Mine Safety and
>Health Administration, and various other groups did a lot of research in 
>the
>mines and mills. ³They turned the report in to the federal government but 
>it
>was never printed,² he said.
>
>Evers said she has been fighting to get compensation for a Post-71 miner 
>who
>was diagnosed with sinus cancer. ³He has had most of his face removed. They
>won¹t compensate him because the government, in its infinite wisdom, has
>determined that the sinuses are not part of the respiratory system. But
>every medical doctor in the country says, ŒAre you nuts?¹
>
>³It¹s stupid! And the more we learn, the more stupid it gets. How can you
>not acknowledge that sinus cancer is a respiratory problem? My heart just
>goes out to him.²
>
>Even if the victim and his family received the $100,000 RECA compensation
>allocated for uranium workers, right now, Evers said, ³they still wouldn¹t
>see any of it because they owe it all to the medical bills. They¹re old
>folks. They pay their bills before they treat themselves right.²
>
>The companies could have solved the problem, Evers said, ³by issuing
>radon-qualified respirators to all of us. I know that they¹re kind of
>expensive and you have to change the filters every day. But that still 
>seems
>like it would have been cheaper, to me, than paying $125,000 to $200,000 
>per
>person.
>
>Wednesday
>September 19, 2007
>Selected Stories:
>
>Get out your checkbook; County Commission OKs tax increase, including 60% 
>in
>Zuni
>
>Medicine man claims: ŒRape never happened¹
>
>Miners: We¹re still getting the shaft
>
>No place like home; Navajos ready to own their own real estate
>
>Deaths
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