For comparison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the USDOE acknowledge that there are some risks from the contaminants, but repeatedly state it’s an acceptable risk.
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The USDOL’s Contradictory Program Statistics
— A Progressive Distortion —
by: the Office of Workers Compensation Program
Employment Standards Administration (ESA)
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The USDOL agents insist on publishing and advertising their conflicting EEOICP statistics, one after the other. By June 20, 2004, the USDOL claimed the total compensation paid was $834,414,695. However, by September 2004, the GAO audit indicates the sum of $65 million compensation paid — a significant difference.
EXCERPT: “In the first 2½ years of the program, Labor and NIOSH
had fully processed about 9 percent of the more than 21,000
claims (which correspond to about 15,000 cases) that were
referred to NIOSH for dose reconstructions, taking an average
of 17 months to fully process claims. Fifty-one percent of the
processed claims were approved, and Labor has paid out about
$65 million in lump-sum compensation. Forty-nine percent were
denied because it was determined that the claimed illness was
not at least as likely as not related to employment at a covered
facility. A backlog of claims needing dose reconstruction
developed because NIOSH needed time to get the necessary staff
and procedures in place to complete the dose reconstructions
and develop site profiles. Efforts are under way to develop site
profiles that contain facility-specific information that is useful in
completing dose reconstructions. However, processing claims
associated with facilities that do not have site profiles, in some
instances, has essentially stopped, and NIOSH has not established
a time frame for completing these remaining site profiles because
of limited expert resources and site complexities. As a result,
some claimants could wait a considerable period of time to have
their claims fully processed. To help ensure the consistency of
claim decisions, HHS’s Advisory Board is conducting an
independent external evaluation of dose reconstruction decisions
and site profiles.” — See GAO-04-958 Audit. URL internet
