Sickened workers await compensation

August 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO

Four years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama called them “veterans of the Cold War” and pledged to help them get compensation.

But today, many former workers at Blockson Chemical Co. in Joliet, Ill., and their survivors still have not been paid from a fund created in 2000 to make amends for exposing the workers to high levels of radiation without telling them or providing adequate protection.

Among them is Phyllis Keca, 84, whose husband, John, thought he was manufacturing laundry detergents during his 23 years working at Blockson. He wore only a paper mask while handling tanks that, unknown to him, were filled with uranium and radium to be used in the production of nuclear weapons.

He was “always sick,” his wife said, and would come home covered in dust that she now believes was toxic and contributed to his death in 1996 from colon cancer at age 80.

“It’s deceitful and it’s deceiving because my husband went through so much,” said Keca.

That could change in the coming weeks. By early September, federal officials are expected to decide on a special petition filed on behalf of former Blockson Chemical workers and their survivors who not only struggled with radiation-induced cancer but also with a complex federal bureaucracy.

The petition would make it easier for Blockson employees to file claims by eliminating the requirement that they prove their illnesses were radiation-related.

At stake are claims filed on behalf of former Blockson Chemical workers who helped build atomic weapons at the facility from March 1, 1951, to June 30, 1960.

Blockson employees were among more than 600,000 industrial workers nationwide who helped build and test nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy during and after World War II.

In 2000, Congress established a fund to give $150,000 plus medical benefits to workers who got certain cancers caused by handling radioactive materials. In cases where the workers had died, the money would be paid to their survivors.

But the pace of payouts has been slow and the burden of proof has been high. Of 363 claims filed on behalf of Blockson workers or their relatives, 102 have been paid thus far, according to Department of Labor statistics.