Labor Dept. rejects majority of sick claims

CINCINNATI (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Labor has rejected nearly three out of four compensation claims from workers who say they were made sick by exposure to materials at a former uranium processing site.
The Feed Materials Production Center at Fernald, about 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati, produced enriched uranium for the Defense Department's nuclear weapons program from the 1950s until 1989.
The government has set up a compensation program that will pay up to $150,000 to a worker who contracted a radiation-caused cancer or lung disease because of exposure at the plant.
The Labor Department uses medical records, badges that measured a worker's exposure to radiation and other records to determine if there is at least a 50 percent likelihood that a worker's illness came from working at the site.
The department has received claims from 1,148 workers and, as of Thursday, had rejected 610 claims and approved 192.