Mike Padgett meets with sick Oak Ridge workers, I tag along

I tagged along yesterday to a meeting between Mike Padgett and six former Oak Ridge National Laboratory workers who are now sick or dying as a result of exposure to unsafe materials at ORNL.

The fact that these folks were exposed to hazardous elements in their working environment is bad enough, but the treatment and attitude they've gotten from the machine in charge of administering the money they're entitled to through the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program is appalling.

Basically, the government puts up so much red tape and bureaucratic bullshit that people die before they can get the compensation to which they're entitled - just so they don't have to pay.  They stall these workers because they're waiting for them to die.

I really don't understand the cruelty in this world.  I'm not wired that way.

On the positive side, Padgett promised the group that, when elected, he will establish a post in his Knoxville office where an individual will work on their behalf to turn the system around and make EEOICP work for them.

Here's an article that details the struggle these workers face.  It also profiles Janine Anderson, one of the sick workers Padgett met with yesterday, whose lungs are damaged from beryllium poisoning and who will ultimately not survive due to an expanding liver that will grow to crowd out her other vital organs.

By Monday, you'll find a press release here on Padgett's meeting with the group.

See also: Cold War Patriots