Rockwell to Pay Ex-Worker $75,000

Rockwell International has agreed to pay a $75,000 workers compensation settlement to a former employee who has leukemia and claims to have been routinely exposed to radioactive substances over nearly 20 years on the job.

In settling the case, Rockwell did not admit liability for the illness of Gary Shoop, 52, of Thousand Oaks, who worked as a lab technician at Rockwell’s Canoga Park plant and later at the Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks.

Shoop’s claim against the firm alleges that he was exposed to a variety of toxic chemicals and radioactive substances at Rockwell, where he worked from 1961 to 1969 and again from 1979 to 1988.

In the settlement, which was approved last month, attorneys for Rockwell and Shoop said “a bona fide and good-faith issue exists” as to the link between the workplace exposures and leukemia, a cancer of the blood.