WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley, today said that he has scheduled a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to talk about the petition that he is considering to add the former workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP)to the special exposure cohort.
Grassley said that he will be meeting with Leavitt tomorrow, Thursday, May 19.
"Secretary Leavitt knows about my support for the IAAP petition, but this gives me a chance to reiterate the suffering of these former workers and the obstacles they have overcome to get to this point," Grassley said. "The advisory board has twice now given its support for the IAAP petition. They unanimously agreed that these patriotic Americans deserve compensation."
Grassley also said that he received confirmation from Leavitt’s office that the recommendation from the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health had been received. The letter conveyed to Leavitt from the advisory board reiterated its rationale for recommending the former workers at the IAAP.
The board, in making its recommendation, concluded that the former IAAP employees worked in one of the earliest environments where nuclear materials were handled, and that the radiation doses at IAAP could have endangered the health of the workers.
The board also determined that the limited monitoring data available at IAAP raised serious doubts about the representativeness of the data that does exist, and that the limitations and uncertainties cause a number of difficulties for doing individual dose reconstructions.
Leavitt now has 30 days to consider the petition and forward his recommendation to Congress. The Secretary’s designation will take affect within 30 days unless Congress takes action to reverse or expedite the designation.
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