Rocky Flats workers
This decision is an absolute stab in the back to the hard working people that did what needed to be done. Scientists, machinists, chemists all did their part and received not so much as a handshake from our government for ‘helping to win the cold war’.
Now that we have gone through the clean up, (oh by the way saving the taxpayers millions of dollars) we are being discarded like the waste we cleaned up.
It is amazing that the same government that requires businesses to keep records of their employees’ occupational exposures are now saying that they are not going to require exposure records from Rocky Flats employers. Then deny any claim from ailing former employees for illnesses that may occur 15 or 20 years after an exposure.
We worked with chemicals and mixtures, radiological processes that were cutting edge in the field. Where was the documentation of the hazardous materials we worked with, a.k.a., an MSDS? These data sheets are required for all other businesses, but they don’t exist for nuclear materials.
We used the best safety equipment and techniques known at the time. We did not know they would not be good enough, because no one knew what low dose, long-term exposures would do. No one. Now that the results of those exposures are coming to light in many of the workforce, our government is denying any accountability. It is sickening. So for anyone to say that we knew the risks speaks from ignorance.
We took the nuclear bullet for our country. So come on America, step up to the plate and help those that stepped up to the plate in the name of defense.
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