For the first time, a federal law could ensure veterans exposed to radiation at a secret base in Nevada would receive benefits to treat their illnesses.
Some of these veterans live in the Chicago area, and many are scattered around the country suffering from debilitating illnesses.
The bipartisan legislation, HR9511, was introduced Tuesday, Sept. 10. Also referred to as the PROTECT Act, it acknowledges that some veterans – specifically those who performed military, naval, air or space service at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) – were exposed to radiation and other toxins.
Earlier this year, CBS News Chicago tracked down some of them, including Mark Ely, of Naperville, and Dave Crete, of Las Vegas. The reporting uncovered how their confidential work with the Department of Defense (DOD) in the 1980s left them with lipomas, tumors, and lung and kidney diseases, among other illnesses.
"You’re breathing in radioactive dust, and that breathing in radioactive dust is also what causes most of the other problems that people have and develop, like all the cancers that we see – and that’s what you were exposed to at that base," Crete said. "We drank it. Our food was cooked in it. We showered in water that was contaminated."
But Crete and Ely said because their work was secret, the federal government wouldn’t acknowledge the service of those stationed at that specific classified site. Veterans like them have been fighting for decades to prove they worked there and that their work made them sick.
For that reason, they have struggled to get medical compensation like other veterans can.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, which compensates current or former Department of Energy employees for similar illnesses and exposures, including those who were stationed at Tonopah specifically.
As of May, the government paid out $25.7 billion in claims to more than 141,000 Department of Energy workers since the bill went into effect in 2001, according to statistics from the Department of Labor. But Department of Defense workers, like Ely and Crete, aren’t covered under that bill.The new bill, sponsored by Congressman Mark Amodei […]
Bill introduced to help veterans exposed to radiation at secret base
