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American Indian Miners Are Being Denied Workers Compensation for Radiation Exposure

For several decades, miners from several American Indian tribes have been drilling deep below the Colorado Plateau. Soft, yellow uranium ore was drilled from the rock by the miners. These are the same mines where thousands of Native Americans dug out the uranium that was used in the nuclear warheads that are credited with aiding America to win the Cold War. To get a closer look on personal injury solicitor visit this site.

Unfortunately, a great number of these miners were also injured by this uranium mining process. Most have either died or are dying from cancers and other illnesses as a direct result of their exposure to the uranium radiation inside the mines. Many more continue to fight for their lives even as their family members and friends have already died from work related illnesses.

Dialysis treatments leave numerous scars of the arms of nearly all of the laborers. Dialysis is the treatment that is required in order to aid the workers who are suffering from kidney disease and failure. Most workers blame the drinking water in the mines which has been scientifically proven to contain traces of radioactive minerals.

In 1990, U.S. Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. 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 reason these miners are being compensated by taxpayers is that the work they did was solely to assist the American military’s nuclear weapons division. You will find that further information on workers compensation lawyer melbourne is on that site.

Each of the underground uranium miners were provided $100,000 by the law. In order to qualify, the miner must have one of the six different lung diseases that has been linked to exposure to radiation. However, of the hundreds of Native Indian miners who are eligible to receive this payment, not one of them as seen a penny of it to this day.

American Indians find it difficult to fulfill the law’s requirements. 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.

There have been 242 miners who applied through the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers for their compensation, but to date only 96 of them have received approval. A total of 1,314 applications have been authorized by the Justice Department. Unfortunately, over 1300 applications for compensation have also been denied.

Documentation, such as check stubs, are required to prove the miners’ work hours. Those who have been working in the mines for decades don???t tend to keep these records. Furthermore, these are difficult to obtain through authorities.

The Navajo Indian Reservation saw its first uranium mines around 1947. This was a time when any types of jobs or occupations that became available were greatly welcomed. Despite the fact that the wages were low and conditions were poor, many were happy to just have a job.

Radon is one of the most serious hazards presented by mining. A by-product of decaying uranium, radon is odorless, colorless radioactive gas. It is believed that most of the lung conditions that qualify for government compensation were caused by radon exposure.

This fall, former miners and tribal officials will lobby Congress to get changes made in the law so that former miners can more easily qualify for payments. Many Navajo miners think that compensation is due based simply on their having worked the mines; this is another problem with the Act being misunderstood and needs clarification.

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