Uncompensable cancer

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 2, 2007 | by Betsy MasonSTAFF

In 2001, the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act went into effect. The program offered a $150,000 lump sum payment to Department of Energy workers who had been exposed to dangerous conditions through their jobs.

The government estimated it would receive 3,000 claims a year. Instead, more than

148,000 have been filed and many of those workers have been waiting for years.

So far, just 38 percent have been paid.

Here are the stories of three employees recounting what they and their families have gone through as they have fought for compensation.

Don Freitas

Don Freitas knew there would be risks involved with working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, but he took the job anyway.

It was a good job, and he wanted to provide a good life for his family.

"They told him to expect to lose 10 years of his life," said his son, Tom Freitas of Concord. "But he was OK with it."

Freitas loved his job and worked at the lab for nearly 25 years. He started as a draftsman but worked his way up and retired as a nuclear weapons engineer.

He worked with nuclear weapons and traveled to the Nevada Test Site numerous times to witness nuclear bomb detonations. Sometimes he was in charge of transporting the bombs.

In 1963, Freitas climbed into the crater made by the last atmospheric nuclear test only days earlier. He was told it was safe.

He worked on projects with names such as Hot Box, Mighty Epic and the High-Yield Accelerated Program.

Freitas saved all the certificates he received affirming his participation in these projects. He kept organization charts, presentation slides and all of his security badges.

"It's because he was really proud of his work," Tom said.

His wife and three sons were proud, too. It was important work, a matter of national security.

"She bragged about it," Tom said of his mother. "Still does."

Freitas knew the work he had done could shorten his life. So it came as no surprise when he was diagnosed with leukemia in 1990 at age 69.

When his doctor told him his cancer was likely caused by radiation exposure, Freitas wasn't bitter. He had willingly cut his life short in service to his country and even did contract work for the lab after he retired.

But the bitterness would come.

Freitas lived 10 years after his diagnosis. He spent part of the last five of those years trying to get the compensation he was due under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990. Workers who had participated in atmospheric nuclear weaponstests were eligible for $75,000.

He applied in 1994, but was denied a year later. The rejection letter said he hadn't contracted "one of the specified compensable diseases."

In 1997 he filed another claim with more documentation of his leukemia and letters from his doctor. This time his claim was denied because the diagnosis hadn't shown up in his records until 1996, which falls outside of the program's 30-year time limit between first exposure, 1957 in Freitas' case, and onset of the disease.

He had expected the cancer diagnosis. He hadn't expected this.

"He wasn't bitter and surprised when it (the cancer) happened," Tom said. "But he was bitter and surprised when there was no support for him when it happened.

"He was absolutely disgusted that he had put in all that time and effort into doing what he did, even after he retired. It wasn't Lawrence Livermore Laboratory he was upset with, it was the government and the way they were treating him."

Still, Freitas was proudly showing off pictures of Livermore Lab to health care workers visiting his home right up to his last day.

He died in 2000 without seeing a dime.

In 2003, when Tom heard about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, he picked up where his father left off. He spent a year filling out paperwork and gathering documentation, and filed another claim in 2004 on behalf of his mother.

It took three years, but Freitas' habit of saving documents from his job paid off. Every time Tom was asked for more proof, he was able to produce it.

On March 5, the claim was finally approved, and Don Freitas' widow received $275,000, just days before his birthday. She felt as if Don were still taking care of her.

"She's thrilled to death for getting the money, but it doesn't take the place of her husband of course," Tom said. "They were married since 1942. They were together a long time, a very loving couple."

Francine Moran

It took a heart attack in 2006 to convince Francine Moran to give up.

For three years, she had been fighting the Department of Labor to get compensation for stomach cancer she believes was caused by exposure to radiation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she worked as an administrative assistant for 19 years.

The Brentwood woman says stress from the claims process contributed to her heart attack.

"I'm lying on the floor thinking 'I've met my maker,'" Moran said. "I've got better things to do than fight with an organization that doesn't give a damn."

Moran, 61, had filed a claim in 2003 under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.