OWCP News Release: [01/21/2010]
Contact Name: Jesse Lawder Michael Volpe
Phone Number: (202) 693-4659 (202) 693-3984
Release Number: 10-0083-BOS
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor is notifying all former Brookhaven National Laboratory workers who worked there between 1947 and 1979 about a new class of employees added to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act’s (EEOICPA) Special Exposure Cohort (SEC). The EEOICPA provides compensation and medical benefits to workers who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. Survivors of qualified workers may also be entitled to benefits.
A worker who is included in a designated SEC class of employees, and who is diagnosed with one of 22 specified cancers, may receive a presumption of causation under the EEOICPA. The new SEC class of former employees includes all employees of the U.S. Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and its contractors and subcontractors who worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., from Jan. 1, 1947, to Dec. 31, 1979, for at least 250 workdays occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with workdays within other classes of employees in the SEC.
To date, more than $4.7 million in compensation and medical benefits has been paid to 41 eligible Brookhaven National Laboratory claimants under the EEOICPA, while more than $5.4 billion in compensation and medical benefits has been paid nationwide. For additional information about the new SEC at Brookhaven National Laboratory or to schedule an appointment for claim-filing assistance, please contact the Labor Department’s New York Resource Center toll-free at 800-941-3943.
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