Will they be paid before they die?

[seemslikeadream]

By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer


George Bassitt of Hamilton worked at Fernald as a chemical operator for 37 years and suffers numerous health problems he traces to the plant. Now retired, he has written countless letters to government officials seeking help. He said he is doubtful that promises of speedier action on health claims will actually happen.
The Enquirer/GLENN HARTONG

CROSBY TWP. - One by one, George Bassitt's friends are dying. They are casualties, he says, of the Cold War - years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Bassitt, 75, is one of about 7,000 men and women who worked at the Fernald plant in northwest Hamilton County, a place where the federal government melted raw ore in acid baths to get at the uranium inside. From 1952 until 1989, the uranium produced at Fernald helped fuel the country's nuclear weapons program.

A chemical operator for 37 years, Bassitt routinely worked over radioactive uranium, acids and other hazardous chemicals, usually with nothing more than a pair of gloves and coveralls for protection.

Bassitt, of Hamilton, is one of more than 1,100 retired Fernald workers who have filed claims with the federal government, hoping to receive cash for the cancer, respiratory ailments, lost wages and disabilities they say resulted from their work.

Three years after compensation programs were created, more than 70 percent of the Fernald claims are languishing in a bureaucratic maze. Fewer than 100 have been paid. The rest have been denied or recommended for denial.

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http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/22/loc_fernaldworkers24.html