The Washington state Senate on Thursday voted 35-14 to pass legislation that would ease requirements for ill Hanford Site workers to be approved for state workers’ compensation because of exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals on the job.
House Bill 1723, which was first introduced last year by Republican state Rep. Larry Haler, a former longtime worker at the Department of Energy facility, already has passed the House, but will need to return to the lower chamber for concurrence on an amendment.
The bill’s supporters expect it to go to Gov. Jay Inslee (D) to be signed into law as soon as early February.
“It’s important that we take care of workers who have suffered due to being exposed to harmful chemicals and processes at Hanford,” Haler said. “Despite all the safety precautions taken, families and individuals have been devastated by illness and disease. They need help.”
Hanford employees who testified in committee hearings on the bill said the state routinely denies their workers’ compensation claims. Hanford worker claims are denied by the state at five times the rate of claims from other self-insured suppliers, according to Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based worker advocacy group.
The Department of Energy is self-insured for state workers’ compensation and contracts with a third-party administrator to handle claims. The state Department of Labor and Industries rules on the claims, with costs for lost wages and medical care then covered by DOE.
The current system requires demonstrating a link between an illness and a specific exposure at Hanford. But the secrecy surrounding Cold War plutonium production at the site kept hazards from being well documented, making it difficult to establish that connection, said Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, at a Jan. 10 hearing on the bill before the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.
“To prove exposure that happened 20 years ago does not make sense for these folks,” he said.
The bill approved by the Senate presumes that as little as eight hours of work at Hanford in an area once used for plutonium production or in an area covered by the current environmental cleanup program could cause a wide range of illnesses.
Covered illnesses under the bill include many cancers, respiratory diseases, and neurological diseases. Heart issues also would be covered if they are experienced within 72 hours of exposure to a toxic substance.
The presumption of an occupational cause for disease could be refuted by other evidence, including physical fitness and weight, smoking, lifestyle, family history, and exposure to toxins in other jobs or outside work.
Republican Sen. John Braun urged lawmakers to reject the bill Thursday night, saying it was too extreme to presume Hanford exposure caused illness over the lifetime of a person who spent as few as eight hours at the site. In committee testimony, Carpenter had argued that a single exposure to asbestos could lead to disease 50 years later.
“We saw gut-wrenching testimony in committee last year,” said Democratic Sen. Karen Keiser in a statement after the vote Thursday. “Exposure to heavy metal and radiation has ruined people’s lives. … We are seeing people dying from dementia, cancer, and lung disease who were systematically left out of workers’ compensation.”
A year ago, worker health concerns discussed in testimony on the bill were being driven by chemical vapors associated with radioactive waste held in Hanford’s underground tanks. Union officials say exposure has caused respiratory and neurological disease in their workers. New concerns have been raised about worker safety after the partial collapse of a radioactive waste storage tunnel at Hanford last May and the spread of radioactive particles during demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
