[CPEO-MEF] Iowa workers and radiation

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

IAAP claims history at a glance 

Burlington Hawk Eye (IA)
February 10, 2005

Here is a brief look at events leading to an advisory board's decision
Wednesday to expedite disability payments for Iowa Army Ammunition Plant
workers. 

...

1947 ? Atomic Energy Commission reopens plant with a secret project: to
make nuclear bombs. Assembly of conventional weapons resumes as well.
During the height of the Cold War and during the Vietnam War, more than
8,000 people were employed at the Middletown facility. From 1949 to
1951, the Middletown factory is the nation's only nuclear weapons
assembly plant. 

...

[2000] The federal government finally discloses that nuclear tests were
conducted at the Middletown facility. 

Congress passes a compensation package for nuclear?weapons workers
across the country. Workers or their survivors can receive up to
$150,000 each if they can show that their ailments were related to their
work. 

2001 ? Congress passes legislation expanding the number of survivors who
could receive a federal benefits package created for former workers, or
their survivors, who suffered long?term illnesses or died from exposure
to hazardous materials at the plant. In addition, Congress approved $1
million for a health study of non?nuclear workers at the plant. 

...

2005 ? Officials from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health say they are unable to determine the amount of radiation the
weapons workers absorbed on the job without the release of additional
classified documents. A NIOSH advisory board recommends unanimously to
scrap the dose reconstructions and grant worker petitions. 

For the entire article, see
http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln8_0210.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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