Less than helpful
To all my friends from the IAAP, former nuclear workers, the
press release from the Department of Energy about subtitle "D"
assistance in state workers' compensation proceedings is less helpful than it sounds.
By the end of year 2006, Subtitle D claims expect to be
through the DOE physicians panel, according to a DOE spokesman.
Next comes the State of Iowa Tribunal for workmen's compensation,
assuming they accept jurisdiction, to establish level of benefits. This action
will take from six to 24 months depending on complexity. This brings us to year
20072008.
With that timeline in mind, nothing has been gained for the
people who were injured by their work at the Burlington atomic commission
plant. Most will pass on before help has arrived. The amount of help from Subtitle
"D as in dog" is even questionable.
Our senators are helping us seek and get aid. Now we need to
press the House of Representatives to give us help and aid for the Subtitle
"B Program Administration" portion of the EEOICPA.
That will provide compensation in a lump sum and medical
benefits to those affected. Almost immediate relief if passed through the House
and Senate conference committee when they reconvene.
Write, fax and email the members of the House of Representatives
to support Subtitle "B."
Still an Iowan at heart.
ROBERT ANDERSON
Wheaton, Ill.
======================================
July 30, 2004
Dr. Lar Fuortes
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Dear Lar,
I am writing this in letterform because I think it might be
too long for e-mail. I want to let you
know about the actions I took today, about the Special Exposure Cohort and the
Workers Compensation Amendments, that are on the Senate Defense Authorization
Bill for Fiscal-Year 2005.
First off, Lasca came to my place at 8:30 this morning. By 9:00 AM I was on one phone and Lasca was
on another one of my phones and we started calling officials in Washington,
D.C. The following is a list of the people
we talked to and some of what we told them and what we asked of them about the
Special Exposure Cohort and Workers Compensation Amendments. I talked to aides
and secretaries of the officials. I got
their names and gave them Lascas and my names and our phone numbers. I told them about the letters and petition
we were going to fax to them and asked for their fax number, which they
willingly gave to me. Several
emphasized that we send the petition.
Maybe it will give their bosses an excuse not to work against the
amendments.
I told all of them that the Site Profile for the IAAP lacked
information. That there was very little
radiation monitoring done during most the time Nuclear Weapons were made
there. I told them that the Site
Profile was a poor document to use for Dose Reconstruction.
I told several of them that four years was long enough to
wait for compensation. The survivors need the money and the ones still alive
need their compensation and their medical bills paid. I told them that they
need the Workers Compensation because of illnesses caused by exposure to chemicals,
etc. I also told some of them that the
government paid the survivors of the World Trade Center millions of dollars in
just two years and that they hadn't paid a single cancer claim a measly
$150,000 in four years.
1. I talked to
Amy Butler in Rep. Jim Leach's office
(202) 225-6576. She was very
helpful and gave me telephone numbers that I needed. I have talked to her three times previously and she knows what we
want done. I told her we were going to
fax letters and petitions to Leach.
2. We called
the White House Switch Board. (202) 456-1414.
I told her that we wanted President Bush to support and work for the
amendments. I also told her that we had
heard that President Bush was working against them, that he was putting
pressure on conferees to vote against them.
She took down notes about what I told her. She assured me that he gets the notes about all calls at the end
of the day. I told her that we had a
petition people were signing and that we were going to fax Bush a letter. She said to fax the petition also. She gave me the Fax Number: (202) 456-2461.
3. I called
Rep.Zach Wamps office,Phone: (202) 225-3271
Fax:202-225-3494.
I talked to
Debbie. I told her that I under stood
that Rep. Wamp was against the amendments. I told her that he needed to think
of the victims at these weapons plants and that we wanted Rep.Wamp to support
the two amendments.
4. I called
Rep. Mitch McConnell.
Phone:202-224-2541 Fax:
202-224-2499.
I talked to Jennifer .We're faxing letter and petition to them
.
5. Senator John
Kerry. I talked to Katie, his aide.
We're faxing letter and petition to them.
Katie said he gets his faxes every day. Phone:202-693-6000 Fax: 202-224-8525.
6. Rep. James
Sensenbrenner Jr. (Judiciary) I talked
to Brandt.. He said he would give the
information to Sensenbrenner. Sending
letter and fax to them. Phone:
202-225-3951. Fax: 202-225-7682.
7. Rep. Duncan
Hunter. (Armed Services) I talked to Dawn.
She said send petition and letter.
Phone: 202-225-4151. Fax:
202-225-0235.
8. Senator John
Warner. (Armed Services) I talked to
Katie. Sending letter and fax to
them. Phone: 202-224-3871. Fax: 807-782-2131.
9. Senator Pete
Domencia. (Energy) I talked to Stephanie. Phone: 202-224-4971. I forgot to ask for the fax number. Will have to call her back to get it. Sending letter and fax to them.
10. Senator Orin
Hatch. (Judiciary) I talked to Leslie. Sending letter and
petition to them. Phone:
202-224-5225. Fax: 202-224-6331.
11. I called
Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abrams. I
talked to Jean. I told them all of the above, that we wanted the IAAP and the
Mallinkrodt facilities in Missouri to become a Special Exposure Cohort and told
her why. I told her we wanted the
claims both cancer and workers comp. Claims to be done by the Dept. of Labor.
And we wanted the claims process speeded up.
Phone: 202-586-6210. Fax:
202-586-4403. Sending letter to him.
12. Secretary
of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson.
I talked to Miss Furman, his secretary.
I told her Lasca and I are members of the DOD/DOE Advisory Boards. I told her that a petition had been
submitted to NIOSH to make the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant a Special Exposure
Cohort for former nuclear weapons workers cancer claims. I also told her that I understood that
Secretary Thompson would make the final decision on this. She told me that this was correct. I told her about the IAAP Site Profile, the
lack of records, and the lack of radiation monitoring for many years. I told of the human cost to the former
workers and their survivors. I told her
that cancer victims need medical costs paid for now. I told her about my family
members that worked at the plant and that I had worked on the DOD side of the
plant during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War. I told her that we were
asking that Secretary Thompson rule in favor of the Special Exposure Cohort for
the IAAP. We will be faxing a letter to
Secretary Thompson.. She gave us their Fax number: 1-202-690-7000. Phone: 202-690-7000. I can't type up a letter to him until I
return from Boston.
13. I tried to
call Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, but I couldn't get the call to go
through. I will call her when I return
from Boston. Did you know she is
married to Senator Mitch McConnell?
I am going to Blue Springs on Monday. We won't fly out of KC until Wednesday
afternoon. I will be back home on the12th.
If you need to talk to me Lucinda's phone number is: 816-229-0695. I can also get my emails anywhere I am, even in Boston so you can
email me.
Please e-mail me to let me know if you received this. Let us know when the next DOD board meeting
is.
I know this is a long letter, but I wanted to let you know
the names of the people we have been lobbying.
Paula Graham
=========================================
Under Correspondence (with Government Agencies)
July 31, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Bush,
We are members of the DOE/DOD Advisory Board to the
University of Iowa former worker program that has been screening former workers
of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) near Burlington, Iowa for radiation
induced cancers and beryllium lung disease.
As you are aware, the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal
-Year 2005 has passed the senate and the House of Representatives and is now
going to a Conference Committee to work out differences. The Senate has two amendments to their
version that the House did not add to theirs.
One is the Bond-Harkin-Amendent, that adds the former
nuclear workers at
the IAAP near Burlington, Iowa and two groups of atomic
weapons workers
from the Mallinkrodt facilities in Missouri to Special
Exposure Cohort
under the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation
Program Act of
2000 (EEIOCPA) .We strongly urge you and want you to support
this amendment
to part of the final bill.
We stated many reasons why we want this Amendment kept as
part of the final bill in our letter that we are faxing to Representative
Duncan Hunter and others and the other letter we are faxing to you along with
signatures on a petition. We will have more signatures on a petition to fax to
you in a few days. We are faxing a copy
of our letter to Representative Hunter.
The second Amendment is about Part D of the EEIOCPA Act. It
is about Workers Compensation for illnesses caused by worker exposure to
chemicals, explosives, solvents, etc.
These people need compensation and medical care, also. We want the Department of Labor to process
these claims and we want them to be the payor for the Iowa and Alaska workers
claims. We strongly urge you and want
you to support this amendment to be part of the final bill.
As a Compassionate, Conservative Christian, it is our belief
that you will want these two Amendments passed, for the benefit of the workers
who put their lives 0on the line to help win the Cold War.
Some government officials do not realize what life was like
in the Midwest during the 1950's and 1960's.
As we have told officials from NIOSH, we never heard of cancer back
then. We did not use farm chemicals or household
chemicals. On farm fields we spread
lime and manure. So, these workers must
have gotten their exposure through working at the plants.
Life was different then.
Rural electricity wasn't in our area.
People who lived in towns were self-sufficient. Paula lived in the country with no electricity
and an ice box, no running water an outside hand pump to draw water, and a path
to the outhouse instead of a bath.
Lasca lived in town with only an electric cord hanging from the ceiling
with a bulb in it. She also had a path
to the outhouse instead of a bath. She
also had to pump
water.
Now we want to tell you how working at the IAAP has affected
our family. I, Paula Graham, was 18 years old when I stared working at the IAAP
in 1951, during the Korean Conflict. I
also worked at the plant during the Vietnam War. I worked with many explosives, chemicals, metals, cut glass, etc,
during the time I worked at the IAAP. I
worked on the conventional lines, not the nuclear line. I take 20 pills a day and use an
inhaler. I have chemical allergies. I
had to stop working in 1994 because of this.
The cost of medicine is horrendous. At times my life has been a living hell because of all my health problems.
Other members of our family also worked at the IAAP. Our sister who was 19 years old worked at
the IAAP. In 1951, Paula and Lona both
worked on Line 6. One day a worker dropped a tray of detonators on the cement
floor and they blew. Metal and
explosive blew into Loan's legs. She
was treated at the Plant Hospital for a couple of months. Later in the year
Lona was security cleared to transfer to the Nuclear Line. She worked on the
Nuclear Line until she quit working at the plant. She worked there during her first
pregnancy. Her baby boy was born with
deformed legs and severe anemia. The
doctors wanted to break his legs and try to straighten them. Later, she had another baby boy who had
severe anemia, too. She died on August
29, 1956, at the age of twenty-five years. I, Paula Graham, always thought that
her work at the IAAP caused her death.
Of course I couldn't say anything about it because we weren't supposed to talk about our work.
Our mother and father both worked at the IAAP during WWII
and the Korea Conflict. Dad worked until 1962.Mom had numerous tumor surgeries
and developed lymphoma in the 1960's.
She died in 1977. Dad died in
1979. He spent five weeks in the
hospital before he died. Many of his organs were affected, his liver, pancreas,
lungs, heart, etc.
I, Lasca Yerington's, first husband worked about 10 years at
the IAAP. After leaving the Plant he was unable to work and was on disability
for years before he died. He worked on
the Nuclear Line. He had cancer.
Of the immediate members of our family, who worked at the
IAAP (mom, dad our sister and Paula), Paula is the only one still living. We
were loyal Americans who worked to support our country and our armed forces.
We respectively request that you support the loyal Americans
who did their part to help overcome the Soviet Union in the Cold War by
sacrificing their health, lives and well being of their families. Support them by keeping these two amendments
in the Defense Authorization Bill for FY 2005 and by signing it into law.
We want to thank you for your time and consideration of our
cause. We look forward to hearing from
you.
Sincerely,
Paula Graham
Lasca Yerington
1123 48th Street, Apt. 6
3457 175th Street
Fort Madison, Iowa 52627
Wever, Iowa 52658
Phone: 319-372-2388
Phone: 319-372-3600
Fax: paulaagraham@ hotmail.com Fax:
donlascalc@interlink.net
Enclosures:
Copy of letter faxed to Representative Duncan Hunter and
others.
Another letter with a petition and signatures.