Seattle Times reports ever more bad news about Hanford and its workers
The federal occupational safety agency contends the pause is necessary to protect claimants’ private information from being plucked by hackers. Especially at risk are records known as dose reconstructions — calculations that determine the cumulative exposure to radiation someone absorbed on the job based on historical records — which are essential in determining whether workplace exposure is primarily responsible for their health problems.
Without dose reconstruction data, individual claimants’ applications for benefits cannot be completed.
Faye Vlieger, a volunteer advocate in Kennewick who helps sick nuclear workers pursue claims, called the delay and the lack of information from NIOSH about what’s driving it “very cavalier, callous and uncaring. It says, ‘We don’t care about your situation.’ “
