subject: Workers Compensation For Radiation Exposure Being Denied To American Indian Miners [print this page] For several decades, American Indians have been the primary workers in mines that are located deep under the Colorado Plateau.
This involves running a drill that gouged soft, yellow uranium ore out of the rock. These are the same mines where thousands of Native Americans dug out the uranium that was used in the nuclear warheads that are credited with aiding America to win the Cold War.
Meanwhile, these American Indian miners have themselves become casualties of the Cold War as a result of their work.
Cancer and other ailments that can be blamed on radiation exposure have killed, or are killing many of the miners today. There are many Native Americans who have lost their families, and those who have survived are still fighting for their lives.
The majority of workers have webs of scars on their arms from dialysis treatments. Many of the workers suffer from kidney failure, and being on dialysis is the required treatment. Blame has been placed on the mines' drinking water, which has been proven to contain traces of radioactive minerals in scientific testing.
In 1990, U.S. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The goal in passing this law was to assist uranium miners who are suffering as a result of exposure to radiation while they worked the mines. America's nuclear weapons were the primary benefactor of the mining work executed in those mines.
Every uranium miner is entitled to $100,000. The miner must experience one of six lung diseases caused by radiation exposure to be eligible for compensation. However, hundreds of Indian miners eligible for this payment, to this day have still not seen a penny.
The miners have found that filing a claim is almost impossible because of many of the requirements of the statute. Firstly, the paperwork is all in English. However, many of the Indian miners are illiterate in English and find the forms confusing.
At the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers, only 96 of the 242 Navajo miners who applied for compensation have received approval from the program. The total number of claims filed by former uranium miners approved by the Justice Department is 1,314. But there have been an additional 1,316 applications denied.
Workers are also required to provide check stubs or other documentation substantiating their claims of how much time was spent in the mines.
Most of the workers who have been in the mines for decades don't keep those kinds of records for their work. In addition, it been shown that obtaining them through the authorities is also difficult.
The uranium mines first opened on and around the Navajo Indian Reservation in 1947. The mines were welcomed by the people in the area because they brought jobs and income to the area. Despite the poor working conditions and low wages.
Radon poses one of the biggest dangers in the mines. Decaying uranium produces this odorless, invisible, radioactive gas. Many of the lung ailments being suffered by mine workers are believed to actually have been caused by radon.
In order to facilitate the process of receiving compensation for their injuries, past miners and tribal leaders plan to petition Congress for modification of the bill in the fall.
The government's biggest concern is that many miners feel that they deserve compensation simply because they worked in the mines, rather than due to the illness and disease they acquired as a result of that work.
by: John Chambers
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