Former Flats workers again denied aid

By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 24, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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The final decision on whether most sick and dying Rocky Flats workers are eligible for medical and financial aid came in a flurry of last-minute meetings in the waning days of the Bush administration.

When the decision landed in a FedEx envelope on the front porch of former Flats worker Jennifer Thompson this week, she wasn't surprised at the answer.

Denied again.

But two things about the letter did surprise Thompson, who has led the charge to make all former Rocky Flats workers who suffer certain cancers and other diseases eligible for automatic aid.

First, she was surprised that the letter even made it to her front porch at all because it contained the wrong address.

And second, that Health Secretary Michael Leavitt signed the letter on the very day seven members of Colorado's congressional delegation asked him not to.

"I am extremely disappointed in the handling of the whole process, which has been ongoing for over four years now," Thompson said.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall was one of the seven who last week asked Leavitt to let the Obama administration make the decision.

"While department heads from the former administration watched the clock tick, these dying people are in a race for their lives," Udall said. "Several of the Rocky Flats workers have already died from exposure to dangerous substances like beryllium, and those who are still alive and sick are not receiving the health care they need and deserve."

A Leavitt spokeswoman said he had not received the congressional letter when he signed off on the Flats decision. Both were dated Jan. 16.

The news was not all bad for the former Rocky Flats workers this week, though. Udall is credited with breaking the logjam that kept federal officials from accepting evidence some families believe qualifies them for financial and medical aid.

"We owe a debt of thanks to Mark Udall," said Margaret Ruttenber, a scientist with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment who studied health problems at Rocky Flats for years.

More than a year ago, the Rocky Mountain News reported that Ruttenber's data showed thousands of Flats workers were exposed to the type of radiation that was supposed to automatically qualify them for medical care and compensation if they developed certain cancers. At the time, federal officials at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health dismissed the data as nothing new.

But Ruttenber said the federal scientist in charge of the matter has known since June that Colorado's records show radiation exposures that federal officials are missing. The Rocky has interviewed multiple families whose compensation claims the institute denied but who show up in Ruttenber's data as having the qualifying exposures.

On Nov. 20, Udall wrote to NIOSH director of compensation Larry Elliott about the matter.

That got the attention of Elliott's boss, and this week, the institute reached an agreement with the state of Colorado to use the Ruttenber data in the compensation program, Ruttenber said.

"Chances are that this wouldn't have happened without his strong support," Ruttenber said of Udall.

The meetings

Outgoing U.S. Health Secretary Michael Leavitt asked three Health Department doctors - Alla Shapiro, Joseph M. Kaminski and Kiyohiko Mabuchi - to review his decision denying automatic aid to most Rocky Flats workers with certain cancers. Leavitt asked them to meet every two weeks. But as the Bush administration ended, their 2008 meeting schedule picked up, including working Christmas Eve. All these meetings lasted about two hours, unless otherwise noted.

* March 12

* April 1, 7, 25

* May 2, 12, 14, 27

* June 13, 30

* July 11, 14, 22, 24 (by phone), 29

* Aug. 1, 5, 6, 18, 22, 26

* Sept. 16, 19 (3 hours)

* Oct. 1, 4 (a Saturday - 5 hours), Oct. 5 (a Sunday - 4 hours), Oct. 10 (by phone), 23, 27, 29

* Nov. 5, 7, 14, 25

* Dec. 5, 9 (6 hours), 12 (3 hours), 15, 16, 18, 23 (8 hours), 24 (by phone), 29 (by phone)

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