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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 1, 2004

SCHUMER URGES FEDS TO MOVE PUBLIC HEARING ON NUCLEAR WORKERS REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA TO WESTERN NEW YORK

Nearly two months after completion of the Bethlehem Steel audit of federal compensation for nuclear workers, feds still won’t reveal findings; only public discussion of the audit to be held in California

Schumer: Western New York’s nuclear workers shouldn’t have to travel across the country to get the answers they deserve

US Senator Charles E. Schumer today urged the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to publicly release the results of the Bethlehem Steel audit in the Buffalo area - not in California as currently planned - so that thousands of affected New Yorkers can attend. NIOSH is scheduled to hold the only scheduled public discussion of the audit in California, making it nearly impossible for the Bethlehem Steel workers to attend and participate in the briefing and dialogue.

“It’s unconscionable that after all the federal government has put these workers through, they are now asking the Bethlehem Steel workers to travel clear across the country on their own dime to participate in any kind of discussion of the results of the audit,” Schumer said. “The entire process has been under a shroud of secrecy and NIOSH has left too many questions unanswered about the compensation for Western New York’s Cold War heroes. There needs to be a public discussion on all of the results of the audit and it needs to be here in the Buffalo area where most of these workers live.”

The Bethlehem Steel audit, which was performed by the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health - the federal body that oversees the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program - was completed nearly two months ago and the results have not yet been made public. The Advisory Board studied NIOSH’s site profiles and dose reconstruction, a measure that estimates the amount of exposure nuclear workers were subject to and is used by NIOSH to determine the compensation those workers receive. NIOSH is scheduled release the results of the audit on December 13th and plans to hold the only public discussion of the audit in San Francisco, California, thousands of miles from Western New York where over 1,700 claims from Bethlehem Steel workers alone have been filed under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program since its inception. Of those, nearly 1,000 have been referred to NIOSH for review. In addition, Schumer staff has learned that NIOSH will hold no public discussion of the dose reconstruction reviews at this meeting.

Schumer said that many serious issues have been raised by claimants regarding the assumptions made by NIOSH and the dose reconstruction formulated in its site profile of Bethlehem Steel and urged NIOSH Director John Howard to relocate the meeting to the Buffalo area, so that the affected Western New Yorkers have the full opportunity to not only review the audit's findings, but to debate and discuss them as well. The Senator also called for an open discussion of the dose reconstruction which will be used by used by NIOSH to determine the compensability of claims.

“For nearly two months, NIOSH’s refusal to publicly release the findings of the Bethlehem Steel audit has created feelings of doubt and distrust among New York’s survivors and their families,” Schumer wrote today to Howard. “I am troubled that through its decision to hold its only public discussion of the Bethlehem Steel audit in California, NIOSH will exacerbate the situation and increase the dissatisfaction felt by the thousands of New Yorkers who risked their health and safety to protect America during the Cold War.”

Earlier this month, Congress passed Schumer’s measure that will establish a new resource center in Western New York that would help sick nuclear workers with their compensation applications. Schumer, who has repeatedly lambasted the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) for only paying out ten percent of claims to New York nuclear workers, introduced the measure which now heads to the President for his signature as part of the FY2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill.

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