[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 10 (Monday, February 2, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S375-S376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND:
  S. 2047. A bill to amend the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 to include certain former nuclear 
weapons program workers in the Special Exposure Cohort under the 
compensation program established by that Act; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that 
will designate the former Mallinkrodt Nuclear Production Facilities in 
Missouri as a Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees 
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) of 2000. These 
facilities, which handled and processed highly radioactive materials 
during the Cold War, are located in Downtown St. Louis, Weldon Springs 
in St. Charles County, and Hematite in Jefferson County, MO 
respectively.
  Energy workers at these sites handled and processed highly 
radioactive materials during the Cold War as part of the Manhattan 
Project and our nation's ongoing Atomic Weapons Program. The St. Louis 
Downtown or ``Destrahan'' Site operated from 1942 through 1958. From 
there, operations and most Mallinkrodt workers were moved out to the 
Weldon Springs Facility which operated until 1958. After that, work 
continued at the Hematite Facility in Jefferson County until 1969.
  This legislation would add these facilities to the four existing 
Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Sites across the country, which were 
written into the original EEOICPA. In addition to designating the 
existing SEC sites, the EEOICPA set up a process to add additional 
sites to the SEC list provided those sites meet certain criteria.
  A Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) is comprised of a group of employees 
with specific cancers who worked at four specific nuclear facilities or 
participated in certain nuclear weapons tests, and who met other 
requirements under the EEOICPA. An SEC designation would provide former 
workers at these sites or their survivors with expedited compensation 
as opposed to requiring these workers to participate in the long, 
complex and cumbersome bureaucratic process known as dose 
reconstruction.
  According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 
(NIOSH), there are two key statutory determinations required for adding 
a class of employees to the SEC. The first requirement is that it is 
not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose 
that the class of employees received. The second requirement is that 
there is a reasonable likelihood that such a radiation dose may have 
endangered the members of this class. After extensive research, which 
included several briefings with NIOSH, the Department of Energy, 
independent experts and former Mallinkrodt workers, I believe that 
there is strong evidence indicating that both statutory requirements 
for the SEC have been met with regard to the Mallinkrodt Sites.
  In mid 2001, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a report 
indicating for the first time that the highly radioactive material 
plutonium was processed at the Weldon Springs Site. The report also 
stated that recycled uranium, another highly radioactive material, was 
processed at the site. Furthermore, in its recently completed site 
profile for the St. Louis Downtown Site, NIOSH admits that they have 
virtually no records or monitoring data on the workers at the site 
prior to 1948. NIOSH also stated that this could be a problem in 
calculating individual dose, thus requiring some assumptions to be 
made.
  Both of the aforementioned issues, the presence of plutonium and the 
loss or destruction of individual monitoring records were reasons for 
writing the four existing SEC sites into the original EEOICPA.
  In addition to these issues, long sought after documents from the 
former Chief Safety Officer for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 
during the time described the Mallinkrodt St. Louis facility as one of 
the two worst plants with respect to worker exposures. Workers at this 
plant were exposed to excessive levels of airborne uranium dust 
relative to the standards in effect during the time, and many workers 
were exposed to as much as 200 times the preferred levels of exposure. 
NIOSH confirmed these intense levels at a recent presentation on the 
Mallinkrodt-St. Louis Site Profile

[[Page S376]]

when it described the operations at this plant as a ``messy'' or 
``dirty'' operation in terms of levels of radionuclides present.
  Finally, NIOSH has informed claimants who worked at these sites or 
their survivors that if they are not interviewed as a part of the dose 
reconstruction process, it would ``hinder'' NIOSH's ability to conduct 
dose reconstruction for the claimant and may result in a dose 
reconstruction that ``incompletely or inaccurately'' estimates the 
radiation dose to which the energy employee named in the claim was 
exposed. So NIOSH is basically saying that they are relying on a former 
worker's memory or any information a survivor might have. What if the 
former worker cannot remember what he was exposed to or was never told? 
What if the survivor has no idea as to what materials the claimant 
might have been exposed? Keep in mind. Most of this happened anywhere 
from 40-60 years ago.
  All of the previously mentioned points are evidence that the health 
of these workers was endangered and that an accurate dose 
reconstruction is not feasible. Therefore, I believe that the 
Mallinkrodt sites in Missouri should be designated as a Special 
Exposure Cohort.
  To make matters even worse, the Department of Health and Human 
Services first published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) 
concerning the Special Exposure Cohort on June 25, 2002, and as of 
today, January 27, 2004, this rule has yet to be finalized. Many of 
these former Mallinkrodt workers have died while waiting for the 
proposed SEC rule to be finalized, including some claimants who were 
waiting for dose reconstruction to be started or completed.
  This is simply unacceptable! The EEOICPA was intended to provide long 
overdue compensation to these workers within a reasonable period of 
time. These brave workers answered the call and helped our nation win 
the Cold War. It is now time for our nation to help them and provide 
them with the immediate compensation that they deserve.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2047

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds that--
       (1) energy workers at the former Mallinkrodt facilities 
     (including the St. Louis downtown facility, the Weldon 
     Springs facility, and the Hematite facility) were exposed to 
     levels of radio nuclides and radioactive materials that were 
     much greater than the current maximum allowable Federal 
     standards;
       (2) the Mallinkrodt workers at the St. Louis site were 
     exposed to excessive levels of airborne uranium dust relative 
     to the standards in effect during the time, and many workers 
     were exposed to 200 times the preferred levels of exposure;
       (3)(A) the chief safety officer for the Atomic Energy 
     Commission during the Mallinkrodt-St. Louis operations 
     described the facility as 1 of the 2 worst plants with 
     respect to worker exposures;
       (B) workers were excreting in excess of a milligram of 
     uranium per day causing kidney damage; and
       (C) a recent epidemiological study found excess levels of 
     nephritis and kidney cancer from inhalation of uranium dusts;
       (4) the Department of Energy has admitted that those 
     workers were subjected to risks and had their health 
     endangered as a result of working with these highly 
     radioactive materials;
       (5) the Department of Energy reported that workers at the 
     Weldon Springs feed materials plant handled plutonium and 
     recycled uranium, which are highly radioactive;
       (6) the National Institute of Occupational Safety and 
     Health admits that--
       (A) the operations at the St. Louis downtown site consisted 
     of intense periods of processing extremely high levels of 
     radio nuclides; and
       (B) the Institute has virtually no personal monitoring data 
     for workers prior to 1948;
       (7) the National Institute of Occupational Safety and 
     Health has informed claimants and their survivors at those 3 
     sites that if they are not interviewed as a part of the dose 
     reconstruction process, it--
       (A) would hinder the ability of the Institute to conduct 
     dose reconstruction for the claimant; and
       (B) may result in a dose reconstruction that incompletely 
     or inaccurately estimates the radiation dose to which the 
     energy employee named in the claim had been exposed;
       (8) the Department of Health and Human Services published 
     the first notice of proposed rulemaking concerning the 
     Special Exposure Cohort on June 25, 2002, and as of January 
     27, 2004, the rule has yet to be finalized; and
       (9) many of those former workers have died while waiting 
     for the proposed rule to be finalized, including some 
     claimants who were waiting for dose reconstruction to be 
     completed.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF MEMBER OF THE SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT.

       Section 3621(14) of the Energy Employees Occupational 
     Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 
     7384l(14)) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as subparagraph (D); 
     and
       (2) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
       ``(C) The employee was so employed for a number of work 
     days aggregating at least 45 workdays at a facility operated 
     under contract to the Department of Energy by Mallinkrodt 
     Incorporated or its successors (including the St. Louis 
     downtown or `Destrahan' facility during any of calendar years 
     1942 through 1958, the Weldon Springs feed materials plant 
     facility during any of calendar years 1958 through 1966, and 
     the Hematite facility during any of calendar years 1958 
     through 1969), and during the employment--
       ``(i)(I) was monitored through the use of dosimetry badges 
     for exposure at the plant of the external parts of an 
     employee's body to radiation; or
       ``(II) was monitored through the use of bioassays, in vivo 
     monitoring, or breath samples for exposure at the plant to 
     traternal radiation; or
       ``(ii) worked in a job that had exposures comparable to a 
     job that is monitored, or should have been monitored, under 
     standards of the Department of Energy in effect on the date 
     of enactment of this subparagraph through the use of 
     dosimetry badges for monitoring external radiation exposures, 
     or bioassays, in vivo monitoring, or breath samples for 
     internal radiation exposures, at a facility.''.

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