June 13, 2007 6:31 AM
Most Flats workers denied medical help
Former atomic bomb makers with cancer were crushed and tearful when the board denied the majority of them immediate medical care and compensation. They say they are dying because they put their lives on the line for America at the now-demolished nuclear weapons plant outside Denver.
"How many more workers have to die?" asked Terry Bonds, district director for the United Steelworkers Union, which filed the petition.
But the board did accept the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's assurance that it can estimate workers' radiation contamination, well enough to prove - or disprove - that it caused their cancers. Workers say many exposures went unrecorded so managers could earn bonuses instead of fines. As a result, they say, the dose estimates are wrong.
"It is an outrage that six of the advisory board members decided to believe the faulty, insufficient and incomplete data that NIOSH uncovered over workers' experiences of what actually happened at that plant," Bonds said.
June 4, 2007
7:55 AM
Rich Hulten writes:
Once again the government is stalling. It is so obvious that if they stall long enough the problem (past workers) will go away when they die. I doesn't take any research to figure out what has happened, simply look at the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Perhaps Vermont is on the right track and has figured out how to keep the feds out of their state once and for all.
June 4, 2007
8:29 AM
Uncle S. writes:
No kidding Rich. I've got plans to up the age of social security too before tyrant son leaves office.
June 4, 2007
8:40 AM
Carpenter's Wife writes:
My husband is a Union Carpenter. When he was out of work for a short time many years ago,the union hall called and asked if he wanted a job at Rocky Flats doing clean up work and demolition. He declined.They told him he would be completely protected by special gear.
Again he said, No Thanks.
He did not trust the government to protect him.Had he gotten sick his union benefits would not have covered his medical,because they would claim it was job related.
He and I are glad that he didn't take that job.
The government waiting for people to die so they don't have to pay these people's medical bills is a disgrace.Since the Democrats are in control where are their voices in this. Since they claim to be looking out for the citizens,why no bill in Congress to help them? They seem to want to help illegals ,why not citizens?
June 4, 2007
8:58 AM
Bad Uncle S. writes:
CWife-
Because there's no sales tax, income tax, and gambling tax to collect from the dying. The dead can't even buy a $6. pack of smokes that's $5. in tax. Next question.
June 4, 2007
9:14 AM
Tree writes:
Carpenters Wife-
Now you have this going thru my head. I've always enjoyed Bob Seger's version the best.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/lyrics/2147400366/Bob_Seger/If_I_Were_a_Carpenter
June 4, 2007
9:20 AM
Bob Dylan writes:
Some are mathematicians...Some are carpenter's wives. Don't know how it all got started, I don't know what they do with their lives.
June 4, 2007
9:25 AM
jay writes:
"The government waiting for people to die so they don't have to pay these people's medical bills is a disgrace.Since the Democrats are in control where are their voices in this."
I always laugh at these kind of attacks.
"The Democrats have been in office for almost six months already!!! Why haven't they fixed all the Republican mistakes already!?!"
June 4, 2007
9:34 AM
Lil writes:
Thank you for pursuing this cause for the families who died so tragically trying to make a living for their families.... I do wish our government, whoever is in control could look at this in a sane manner and have some kind of idea that these families went through and are still going through... I know the Gable family personally and know what a struggle they have had during his illnes and after he died.... they are a wonderful family who has suffered enough... as many of the other families have.... Somehow!!!! their biopsies got lost and they could not prove what should have been taken care of many years ago... Thank you reporters to bringing this to light again.....
June 4, 2007
9:50 AM
Lil writes:
Thank you for pursuing this cause for the families who died so tragically trying to make a living for their families.... I do wish our government, whomever!! is in control could look at this in a sane manner and have some kind of idea what these families went through and are still going through... I know the Gabel family personally and know what a struggle they have had during his illnes and after he died.... they are a wonderful family who has suffered enough... as many of the other families have.... Somehow!!!! their biopsies got lost and they could not prove what should have been taken care of many years ago... Thank you reporters for bringing this to light again.....
June 4, 2007
10:45 AM
Lee Greenwood writes:
I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.
June 4, 2007
11:54 AM
Anonymous writes:
I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free,
And knowing I can do a job for the guvmint, that will end up killing me,
Then when I need a helping hand because I did my part,
I'm told to shut up and wait til they come get me with the cart,
But at least we kicked the old soviet unions big bad ass,
Oh wait, I see today Putins getting ready to make another pass,
So fire up those nuke making plants and hire some new guppies,
So we have bombs to kill all the moms, dads, kiddies, and puppies.
June 4, 2007
12:11 PM
karen writes:
If workers at Rocky Flats had been more careful handling radionuclides they wouldn't have gotten so sick and the site would not have become so contaminated and difficult to clean up. When you look at the history of plutonium releases out there, carelessness was the biggest problem.
June 4, 2007
12:30 PM
Typical Right Wingnut writes:
The victims are to blame!!
June 4, 2007
1:17 PM
The W writes:
""We knew people were dying before they could be compensated, but we had no idea it was this many. It's unconscionable"
This is called
Compassionate Conservatism.
" I appreciate your sacrifice"
June 4, 2007
5:56 PM
Anonymous writes:
And they wonder why northern Colorado doesn't want uranium mines?
June 4, 2007
6:57 PM
foxy writes:
If workers at Rocky Flats had been more careful handling radionuclides they wouldn't have gotten so sick and the site would not have become so contaminated and difficult to clean up. When you look at the history of plutonium releases out there, carelessness was the biggest problem.
Posted by karen on June 4, 2007 12:11 PM
Karen,
You have no idea what your talking about. I worked at the plant for 24 yrs, all in the processing area's. Back in the 80's, during the Reagan legacy, it was Production first and everthing else out the window. We where in the middle of the Cold War and WE WON. There's so much there that "Joe Public" doesn't know about. I leave it at that.......
June 5, 2007
8:54 AM
Anonymous writes:
Why does it take a Senator in this country to get anything done?
It's that way on every major issue. Nice Democracy we live in.
June 5, 2007
9:32 AM
history buff writes:
It looks like the Democrats are doing something for the employees at Rocky Flats. The Republicans made promises, but they obviously weren't serious. It shows the difference in priorities between the parties. The Constitution says the power to govern resides in the people. But the Republicans believe the power to govern resides in the payola.
June 5, 2007
11:14 AM
karen writes:
Foxy:
You don't know what you're talking about. How do you explain the vast contamination at 903 Pad other than carelessness? Huge quantities of plutonium-laden liquid waste were inappropriately stored there in leaky containers. It cost a fortune to clean up the resulting mess. It's pretty obvious to me that the people working out there just didn't think it was a problem to be involved with those types of careless practices, at least not until some of them got sick. There is no reason we couldn't have handled plutonium more carefully while still fighting the Cold War
June 5, 2007
11:38 AM
jay writes:
I wonder...was it carelessness by command? Surely there's never been an instance when a gov't employee told subordinates to cut corners in order to save initial costs. I think it is a little pathetic to blame the victims...but it has become a common practice of those on the right.
June 5, 2007
12:17 PM
LJ writes:
This has been going on through many presidents, both Democratic and Republican. It's not a left or right problem. The same thing has been happening in Social Security, Worker Compensation (this one I know from experience), BLM, IRS, Bureau of Indian Affairs and a host of other programs since their beginning.
They can make the program look better if their bottom line looks good and it keeps on until someone somewhere, doesn't have to be a president or a senator or congressman, decides to do something different to make a difference.
As so often happens, it is those who can least afford to pay the price that end up paying the highest price.
June 13, 2007
9:01 AM
Anonymous writes:
This is really f'd up since the gov can spend gazzilions supporting illegals. Education, health care, food stamps, sec 8 housing, even social security fraud for 12 MILLION people!!!
But we can't support a mere handful of our own people who are suffering and dying because of their work for the government?
Wonder how long we can keep on supporting this government?
June 13, 2007
11:47 AM
David Hakala writes:
Live by the radioactivity, die by the radioactivity. I can muster little sympathy for someone whose Oklahoma City-sized bomb blows up in his face, and even less for people who built weapons to kill millions. Patriotism does not excuse being a well-paid tool. Suck it, Flatties!
June 13, 2007
12:51 PM
Anonymous writes:
You left out a "little Eichmann" comment there David.
Whether you want to admit it or not, having those weapons kept you free and alive. You owe your freedom and very existence to those workers!
But go on pretending you're above it all.
June 13, 2007
4:43 PM
Anonymous writes:
Think back to many years ago--25-35 years ago. . .didn't various news articles come out over and over about how dangerous it was to work at Rocky Flats? Didn't we all have friends who blew off the dangers for "good money" and benefits? Anybody remember all those Westword articles about workers arriving for their shifts who frequently found dead animals and birds all over the place? Anybody remember those articles about how west Denver water supplies/groundaters were contaminated--the city of Broomfield perhaps most of all?
Anybody remember a public health physician (was it a Dr. Johnson) who tried to warn people--and who plenty of folks (Flats workers included) blew off, too?
Now, we find out that what lots of people suspected is true. Yet WHY did people continue to work there? WHY?
Guess the answer is blowin' in the wind.
June 13, 2007
6:43 PM
Anonymous writes:
The only thing I want to know is how much money it took for NIOSH to pay those six people to vote against helping those that had cancer. People say money makes the world go round. Unfortunately they are absolutely right, the more money you have the more you get away with, even the murders of thousands of people. Yes, those six don't view themselves as such but in the long run they are the ones who will be responsible for all the deaths. I hope you enjoy your bribes.
June 13, 2007
8:30 PM
David Hakala writes:
An anonymous coward tells me,
"You left out a "little Eichmann" comment there David."
I didn't claim to be a Native American, either.
"Whether you want to admit it or not, having those weapons kept you free and alive. You owe your freedom and very existence to those workers!"
And to all the dedicated lamp post leaners who have kept the giraffes away for centuries. :P
June 15, 2007
5:12 PM
Lori writes:
My father was an employee of Stearns-Roger Engineering in Glendale who worked on U.S. government contract work at Rocky Flats. I grew up in Golden, Colorado not far from the Rocky Flats Plant. My father was a nuclear engineer who, in his last years at Stearns, was sent to supervise
work at Rocky Flats. He used to tell me how his body was scanned before entering the plant and how it was scanned as he left to measure radiation levels in his body. My father died in February of gastric cancer. I, myself, came down with breast cancer in 2003. I can't help but wonder what role my dad's work at the plant played in his death. His cancer was first diagnosed in 2002 and 2/3 of his stomach was removed. The cancer returned 5 years later. Since cancer rates are high in towns around the plant - Golden, Arvada, etc., it would seem that the business at the plant had something to do with what has happened to my dad and myself. Now that others have been denied further benefits, I wonder who I would contact to add my name and my father's name to the list of victims. My son has lost a grandfather to whom he was truly close. My son Michael is only 14 years old and misses his grandpa. This is my son's first baseball season in which his grandfather is not present at his games. My father withered away to 50-60 pounds before succumbing to his illness late in February. My mother is now alone, does not drive and is without her companion of many years. With two lumpectomies and 30 radiation treatments, I am left with what one might view as a mutilated breast. I lived in Golden from 1968-1977. I can't help but wonder what role the radiation emitted by Rocky Flats had on my own diagnosis. Where do I go from here?
March 30, 2009
10:44 AM
Joe Ramey writes:
My daughter and I had over 30 years at Rocky Flats. She has had surgery,radiation and chemo therapy for three different types of cancers. I am copeing with COPD and am doing just so so but only because I force my self to do breathing exercises daily to keep my lungs as pliable and ss strong as useful as I can keep then. I beleive that the DOL thinks if they stall us and others long enough we will die and they won't have to do anything.