Schumer, Clinton, Slaughter Hail Department Of Labor Decision To Allow Former Cold War Nuclear Workers To Apply For Benefits Despite Re-Designation Of Linde Facilities; Original Plan Would Have Threatened Compensation For Hundreds Of Patriotic Linde Work

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Schumer, Clinton, Slaughter Hail Department Of Labor Decision To Allow Former Cold War Nuclear Workers To Apply For Benefits Despite Re-Designation Of Linde Facilities; Original Plan Would Have Threatened Compensation For Hundreds Of Patriotic Linde Workers Exposed To Life-Threatening Radiation

Last Year, DOL Announced Plans to Re-Designate Several Linde Ceramics Buildings, Jeopardizing the Ability of Workers in those Buildings to Receive Compensation Due from federal Nuclear Workers Compensation Program for Exposure to Life-Threatening Radiation

Schumer, Clinton, Slaughter Wrote Letter To DOL Chief Earlier This Year, Demanding Answers Surrounding Disastrous Plan and Urging The Agency To Reverse the Re-designation

Today, Lawmakers Announce Victory; DOL Decides Workers Will Still be Eligible for Benefits Despite Re-Designation Plan, Preserving Compensation for Hundreds of Workers

Washington, DC - Today, Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter welcomed the decision today by the Department of Labor (DOL) to forgo their previous plans to deny compensation to hundreds of former workers on the Linde campus based on a re-designation of four buildings from Atomic Weapons Employer (AWE) facilities to Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. This decision comes on the heels of the letter from the lawmakers delivered to the Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on January 29, 2007, demanding answers to questions surrounding the potentially devastating decision, and urging the department to re-consider the re-designation. Had DOL not reconsidered the eligibility of workers at re-designated buildings, workers from those buildings would become ineligible to receive compensation for radiation exposure. Additionally, Clinton, Schumer, and Slaughter asked the DOL to refrain from making denial decisions on nuclear worker claims based on the re-designation decision until after reconsideration of the decision is completed.

"This decision today by the DOL to throw out their harebrained plan for denying compensation to these wounded Cold War heroes is terrific news," said Schumer. "It defies justice that these heroic men and women have had to consistently jump through hoops to see compensation for the selfless sacrifices they made to this country during the Cold War. Now that we've convinced DOL to ditch these disastrous plans, we'll be fighting tooth-and-nail to get these workers the compensation they deserve."

"This decision is a victory for the hundreds of former Linde workers who unknowingly sacrificed their health and wellbeing to ensure the defense of our nation during the Cold War. While this significant roadblock has been removed from their path, there is still much work to be done to guarantee that these men and women and their families receive the compensation and healthcare benefits to which they are entitled. I am proud to stand with these unsung Cold War heroes, and I will work with my colleagues to see that their SEC claim receives a full and thorough review," said Senator Clinton.

"The Atomic Energy Workers at Linde Ceramics heroically worked to defend and secure America for future generations at great personal risk to their health and safety," said Rep. Slaughter. "I am deeply encouraged that the Department of Labor finally listened to reason and decided not to continue with their ill-conceived plan to shortchange workers who have sacrificed so much in service to their country. The government must live up to its obligations to make available the compensation that is both rightfully owed and guaranteed under law."

In March of this year, Linde workers completed a process they began more than a year ago, and submitted their petitions to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) seeking Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Status under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). SEC status would eliminate significant administrative burdens placed on the former workers who have one of 22 types of cancer usually caused by exposure to radiation as a result of their work at Linde, and would automatically entitled them to compensation and full medical benefits.

In September 2007, the DOL ruled to re-designate four buildings at Linde Ceramics from Atomic Weapons Employer (AWE) facilities to Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. This decision would strip hundreds of former Linde employees who worked in those buildings of any claim to compensation and medical benefits under one component of EEOICPA, because the component only provides residual radiation coverage for AWE facilities.

Like workers at many other sites in New York and throughout our country, Linde employees were essential to America's Cold War effort. Workers at these facilities built the country's nuclear arsenal in the decades after World War II, helping to ensure America's victory in the Cold War. However, the employees of these companies were not told what materials they were handling, were not provided with safety equipment to shield them from radiation, and lacked any manner of monitoring to determine how much radiation they were being exposed to. Unfortunately many of these workers subsequently got cancer and many have died.

A copy of the January 19 letter from Clinton, Schumer, and Slaughter is attached -

Elaine L. Chao, Secretary

U.S. Department of Labor

Frances Perkins Building

200 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20210

Dear Secretary Chao,

I write regarding the decision of the Department of Labor (DOL) to re-designate four buildings on the site of former Department of Energy (DOE) contractor Linde Ceramics (also know as Linde Air Praxair Tonawanda Laboratory) located in Tonawanda, New York. This re-designation will have a devastating effect on the administration of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICPA) and I ask that you consider reversing the decision.

On September 5, 2007 DOL ruled to re-designate Buildings 30, 31, 37 and 38 at Linde Ceramics from an Atomic Weapons Employer (AWE) facility to a DOE facility. EEOICPA only provides for residual radiation coverage for AWE facilities and not for DOE facilities. Thus, this decision has made most of Linde's former workers ineligible for compensation under Part B of the program if they developed any radiogenic cancer caused by exposure during the NIOSH-defined residual radiation time period. For Linde, this period is from 1953 through July 2006. This decision is a devastating consequence for these workers

This decision means that former Linde workers submitting a claim or appealing a denial of a claim under the Part B Dose Reconstruction Program for development of a radiogenic cancer will no longer be eligible to receive compensation benefits if their exposure occurred in any of these four buildings after 1953. The only way these employees would now be eligible for compensation is if they can prove "affirmatively" that they worked in Building 14 - as it is now the only building that remains defined as an "AWE facility" and eligible for residual-radiation compensation coverage under Part B. Also, with respect to the dose reconstruction program - the fact that some Linde workers exposed to residual radiation have already been compensated but similarly situated workers and surviving family members are now ineligible as a result of this decision is unfair.

This decision is especially devastating because the majority of workers employed during the residual radiation time period worked in Buildings 30, 31, 37 and 38. These workers primarily participated in renovation work within these four buildings that were contaminated from uranium-ore processing for the Manhattan Project during the 1940s. Workers inhaled and ingested dangerous levels of uranium dust during renovation work. Many of these workers are suffering from cancers due to this exposure and sadly, many have died. This re-designation appears to circumvent EEOICPA as enacted in 2000. It also circumvents the precise intent of the Residual Radiation Contamination Compensation Act of 2004 - which was designed to fix the oversight in EEOICPA from 2000 that denied eligibility to workers who were exposed to residual radiation at facilities like Linde that were never adequately decontaminated.

It appears as though this DOL decision circumvents the legislative intent of the EEOICPA and unfairly denies Linde workers compensation coverage they are entitled to under federal law. I am not aware of DOL's justification for this re-designation, and I am troubled that DOL made this determination without notifying the interested parties in advance and without soliciting their input. As early as January, 2007, DOL was aware of a process under way by many former Linde employees to submit a petition to add a class to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) for Linde workers exposed after 1953.

Yet despite knowing of interested parties, DOL issued a decision on this matter without informing the Linde workers or their Congressional representatives, who were assisting them in their efforts. We ask that you provide information on the following:

1. We understand the initial consideration by NIOSH to re-designate these building began around Jan 2006. Please provide information as to why this re-designation process was undertaken.

2. Please provide an explanation for the residual radiation coverage distinction between Buildings 30, 31, 37 and 38 versus Building 14.

3. Please provide information on how this decision might be appealed.

Additionally, we ask that the Department refrain from making any denial decisions on nuclear worker claims based on the re-designation decision until after reconsideration of the decision is completed.

We look forward to you swift response on this important issue. Additionally, we hope that DOL will seriously consider reversing the re-designation decision therefore re-opening the potential for compensation to the majority of Linde workers. These Manhattan Project workers have sacrificed a great deal in the service of our country - in many cases their lives. These former Linde employees deserve an explanation of DOL's decision. Moreover, these workers should be provided with the opportunity to appeal this decision that has unjustly and without any notice excluded them from the basic right granted to them by the Congress in 2000 to be compensated for the unwitting exposure to radiation and the resulting development of radiogenic cancers.

Sincerely,

Charles Schumer Hillary Clinton Louise Slaughter

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