The Department of Labor will host an informational session next week in Ohio for current and former nuclear weapons workers who may qualify for federal financial compensation for on-the-job illnesses, the agency said Tuesday.
Labor will host the seven-hour session about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act on Aug. 16 at a hotel in Hamilton, Ohio, the agency wrote in a press release.
“The U.S. Department of Labor encourages all former nuclear weapons workers and their families in the southeastern area of Ohio to attend this event and learn more about benefits available to them because of their work in the nuclear weapons industry,” Rachel Pond. director of the department’s division of energy employees occupational illness compensation, said in the release. “Our staff will be on-hand to assist attendees in filing claims or provide information about existing claims.”
Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act in 2000. According to the Department of Labor’s website, the program “compensates current or former employees (or their survivors) of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, and certain of its vendors, contractors and subcontractors, who were diagnosed with a radiogenic cancer, chronic beryllium disease, beryllium sensitivity, or chronic silicosis, as a result of exposure to radiation, beryllium, or silica while employed at covered facilities.”
There are 380 covered facilities, according to a searchable database on the Department of Energy’s website.
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program had paid out nearly $24 million in claims to 139,007 people as of this week, according to data posted on the Department of Labor’s website.
