03.12.2010
Author: Daniel Roberts
Far beneath the Colorado Plateau, American Indians have labored for tens of years in the mines there. In order to obtain the soft, yellow uranium ore present, they must operate a drill that plunges deep into the rock. This uranium was used in the nuclear warheads that the US deployed around the country and that eventually helped win the Cold War.
Unfortunately, a great number of these miners were also injured by this uranium mining process. Many of them have died, or are dying, of cancer and other related diseases that results from being exposed to radiation in those mines. There have been many families who have lost people, and many who are still alive face a desperate struggle against sickness.
The majority of workers have webs of scars on their arms from dialysis treatments. Dialysis is the treatment that is required in order to aid the workers who are suffering from kidney disease and failure. A lot of workers feel that most of their disease comes from the water that they drank when they were in the mines that scientists have discovered contains trace amounts of radioactive minerals.
In 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was ratified by Congress.
This act was designed to assist uranium miners that are enduring various health problems due to the work they performed in the radioactive mines. The fact is that the majority of this work was simply done to advance the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Every uranium miner is entitled to $100,000. This was based on the condition that they were experiencing one of six possible lung diseases that are linked to being exposed to radiation. Countless miners of American Indian descent still have not been compensated, despite being eligible.
The hurdles that an Indian miner must overcome make it almost impossible for them to establish a claim for compensation. Firstly, the paperwork is all in English. The problem for these Indian miners is the fact many of them do not understand English that well.
Astoundingly, only 96 miners who have filed compensation claims through the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers have been approved, even though 242 miners have applied. A total of 1,314 claims from uranium workers have been approved by the Justice Department. An equal number of applicants have also been denied their compensation.
Documentation, such as check stubs, are required to prove the miners’ work hours. Do you save your pay stubs and other work records over a period of years and decades?
Uranium mines, both on and around the Navajo Indian Reservation, opened in 1947.
It is the radon exposure which experts believe causes the lung diseases that afflict the miners who have become eligible for the uranium mine compensation.
The current plan this fall is for former miners and tribal officials to lobby Congress to make changes in this compensation law to clear the way for these former miners to receive the payments due.
However, the government is faced with a problem, as all Navajo miners believe that they are entitled to compensation solely on the basis of their work.
Read more:
http://www.zwak.org/workers-compensation-must-be-provided-american-indian-miners.html
