Compensation for Radiation Victims OKd

After hearing emotional appeals to right “one of the great wrongs that we Americans committed against our own citizens,” the House gave final congressional approval Thursday to legislation that compensates radiation victims of nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining.

The bill, expected to be signed by President Bush, provides $50,000 each to stricken “down winders” in Nevada, Arizona and Utah who were exposed to fallout from open-air bomb testing between 1951 and 1958 and for a one-month period in 1962.

The measure also gives $100,000 each to uranium miners--many of them Navajo Indians--who were exposed to massive doses of radiation as they helped mine fuel for nuclear bomb production from 1947 to 1971. The mines were in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming and Utah.

From 600 to 1,100 people who lived down wind of the tests or their survivors are expected to qualify for payments that cover a list of radiation-related illnesses, primarily cancer. From 300 to 500 miners or their survivors are believed eligible for compensation.

“The government made a decision to bomb these people to whom the government makes an apology and a small compensatory payment today,” Rep. Wayne Owens (D-Utah) said shortly before the House took final action by voice vote.

Before the vote, Rep. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said: “This is an opportunity to compensate for one of the great wrongs that we Americans committed against our own citizens.”

Anyone who lived in the affected areas and contracted specific diseases, primarily cancers, qualifies for benefits. But the House went along with earlier Senate changes primarily intended to screen out miners who may have contracted their illnesses from heavy smoking. Miners may face an investigator who will challenge their claims if they smoked.

Owens, whose brother-in-law died from cancer linked to radiation exposure, said that the government should be held accountable because it purposely neglected to tell people of the dangers. Owens and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) were prime sponsors of the bill.

“The government knew these people were being poisoned by nuclear fallout,” said Owens, who represented a group of victims who initially won a damage suit in federal court but lost when the government appealed.

Rep. James H. Bilbray (D-Nev.) recalled that, as a boy in Las Vegas, he went atop a mountain with a Boy Scout troop to watch a blast 70 miles away.

“We would turn away, watch the skies change colors and feel the caress of the breeze. We were not told we were in danger of exposure,” he said.

Bilbray also described the case of a Bunkerville, Nev., woman, Gloria Gregerson. As a young girl, she was told by government test officials at a school assembly that “there was nothing to worry about--but if a radioactive cloud comes over, wash your clothes twice and if you get anything on your skin, wash it off with hot water,” Bilbray said.

The girl was among children who sometimes shook snow-like radioactive ash off oleander bushes and got it on themselves, he continued. At the age of 17, Gloria Gregerson contracted cancer. She lived to be 42.

“For years, the government covered up and outright lied,” Bilbray said. “Now it is time for the government to make amends.”

To receive compensation, victims would have to have been in downwind areas for at least two years (one year for childhood leukemia). Also, they would have to have contracted the disease at least five years after the first exposure to radiation (between two and 30 years for those with leukemia).

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would cost taxpayers $108 million over the next five years if Congress appropriates the full amount authorized in the legislation.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), floor manager of the bill, insisted that the Justice Department begin processing claims even if appropriations lag. However, a key Republican, Rep. Craig T. James of Florida, said that Justice officials may not feel obliged to do so.

An estimated 220,000 military personnel and 150,000 civilians were exposed to radiation when the government conducted atmospheric testing of atomic weapons from 1945 to 1963. They and their surviving dependents receive disability benefits for the 13 categories of cancer associated with radiation exposure.

People down wind from the test site have claimed that the government negligently failed to warn them of any danger. Although a federal district court in 1984 found the government to be negligent, an appellate panel ruled that the government could not be held liable.

In cases involving the uranium miners, the appellate court made a similar ruling but suggested that the miners seek redress from Congress.