Corinna Borden

According to the latest numbers from the National Cancer Institute, roughly 41 percent of us will be diagnosed with some type of cancer in our lifetimes.

But “cancer” is not just one type of disease.

There are more than 100 different kinds with different personalities and causes. And the causes are not all that well understood.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at cancer and environmental pollutants.

It’s a subject researchers are trying to learn more about, but the picture of how the chemicals in our everyday lives interact with our bodies’ cells is far from clear.

What it’s like to hear the word “cancer”

Six years ago, Corinna Borden woke up in the middle of the night with a shooting pain under her right rib cage. It was the kind of pain that made her want to crawl out of her skin.

Months went by and the pain got worse. Doctors were stumped.

She was taking two Vicodin pills every four hours for relief. The medical tests continued, and they eventually found the problem.

Hodgkin’s lymphoma – cancer.

She was 29 years old when she got the news.

“I basically shut down,” said Borden. “Like I was totally blown apart and terrified, and I couldn’t think of anything but that I was going to die and that this was really unfair. And then there was a small part of me that was happy that the pain was not totally in my head, and hadn’t been… And then [I was] angry that nobody had found it. So there was a lot going on. There’s that great line with Paul Simon, ‘when you lose love, it’s like everyone can see into your heart.’ It’s the same feeling, you’ve just been stripped…. every boundary you have is just laid open. It’s a really emotionally horrible feeling. ”

Doctors reassured Borden that Hodgkin’s lymphoma is treatable, and a week later, she started chemotherapy.

But after months of treatment, it didn’t work. Her scans still showed a spot where cancer might be lurking.

“To be honest my anger with the western establishment of not having the chemotherapy help me was also coupled with the anger [that] I’ve been poisoned by whatever that’s been going on… I mean I have no idea what it is I’ve been actually eating, or drinking, or every cosmetic, they don’t have list all of the ingredients or the ‘natural flavors’ – that is an umbrella that can mean anything,” said Borden.

How could this have happened?

It’s a common question after being diagnosed. People ask, “How could this have happened to me – or to my sister, my uncle, my mom, my neighbor?”

There are many factors that can lead to cancer. There are the genes we have inherited. There are viruses. There are naturally occurring things like sun exposure, arsenic in water, and radon.

All these factors can interplay with our genes and cause the cells in our body to grow out of control.

And then there are the man-made chemicals in our lives. How these impact cancer can be tough to figure out.

The National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publishes a list of substances that could cause cancer “to which a significant number of persons residing in the United States are exposed.”

The list is published every two years, and the most recent edition lists 240 substances that can lead to cancer.

• 54 of these substances are listed as “known to be human carcinogens,”
• and 186 substances are listed as “reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.”

The President’s Cancer Panel calls for more action

Each year a panel of scientists appointed by the President takes stock of the nation’s strategy to fight cancer.

In 2010, a panel appointed by former President George W. Bush issued a report that said quote – “the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated.”

Chair of the President’s Cancer Panel Dr. LeSalle Leffall said that only a fraction of the 80,000 chemicals in use today are tested for safety.

“The health effects of many of these chemicals have not been studied or they’ve been understudied and the chemicals really remain unregulated,” said Leffall.

Leffall said the panel recommended more research and more action.

“We think that the government needs to take action to eliminate carcinogens from our workplaces, our schools, and our homes, and that action needs to start now,” said Leffall.

The President’s Cancer Panel report, “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk,” talked about reducing exposure to things such as toxic substances in drinking water, pesticides, medical x-rays, car exhaust, and plastic food containers.

It was criticized by the American Cancer Society. They say only about 6% of cancer deaths are caused by occupational exposure and environmental pollutants.

From the ACS’ report “Cancer Facts & Figures 2012”:

Exposure to carcinogenic agents in occupational, community, and other settings is thought to account for a relatively small percentage of cancer deaths – about 4% from occupational exposures and 2% from environmental pollutants (man-made and naturally occurring).

They said the President’s Cancer Panel report put too much emphasis on these potential environmental risks to the detriment of other known risks – bigger risks – things like smoking, diet, and lack of exercise.

How can we know?

Dr. Richard Clapp is an environmental epidemiologist at Boston University.

He said the 6% number is outdated.

“This is a thirty-year old estimate. I think it was wrong 30 years ago and it’s wrong now. I don’t know what the real percentage is. I don’t think anyone knows what the real percentage is because things interact,” said Clapp.

He said right now, we simply don’t know enough.

“It’s not like environmental or occupational exposures cause 70% or 80%, we don’t know that,” said Clapp. “Anyone that claims they know that is making it up. There’s no way to prove that. But we do know that there are people getting exposed to stuff that causes cancer; why would we want to have that continue?”

Clapp says if there’s a chemical that looks like it might be linked to cancer, it’s wise to get rid of it.

He points to the falling rates of lung cancer as evidence of how we should approach the problem.

“It’s good news that lung cancer, especially in males, has begun to come down, and probably is beginning to come down in females. So that’s a story that needs repeating…  We don’t exactly know  the mechanism, we don’t know exactly what happens to an individual cell, from even whether it’s benzo[a]pyrene in the cigarette smoke, or something else in it, there’s lots of carcinogens in cigarette smoke. So we don’t know the exact details of how that works. But we know if we prevent that exposure it’s going to have a benefit for people’s health.”

Moving from a “reactionary principle” to a “precautionary principle”

Clapp said the U.S. should move toward the European model of chemical regulation. The REACH program (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical substances) was adopted in Europe in 2007. It “places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances.”

A similar, precautionary approach to chemical regulation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.

The Safe Chemicals Act (S.847) was introduced by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), and hearings on the bill were held last November.

And the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is working on a new carcinogens policy expected later this year that could move toward a more precautionary approach to chemical regulation in the workplace.

Making changes, but trying not to be consumed by them

Corinna Borden doesn’t know what caused her cancer, but she has changed her life.

Soon after her diagnosis, she got rid of the chemicals in her house, she began filtering her tap water, and she changed what she eats.

But she tries not to be consumed by these choices. She say she still has to live.

“I’ve been in a position where I didn’t want to get out of bed, because I was so afraid of dying,” said Borden.  “And that’s not how we should live. Life is precious and beautiful and I really feel that you need to go out and experience it.  And going out and being a little closer to the edge is… what choice do we have?”

It’s been almost six years since Borden first heard the word cancer, and she doesn’t know yet if her cancer is in remission. (Borden keeps a blog about her experiences and life lessons, and she’s also written a book, “I Dreamt of Sausage.”)

For those who get the disease these days – fewer are dying from it because of advances in treatment and screening.

But researchers continue to work on one of the biggest puzzles – what makes our cells turn cancerous in the first place?

By: Mark Brush

Rock singer/song writer Christine McVie- Formerly with Fleetwood Mac supports Trevor’s Law!

Christine McVie is an English singer, keyboardist and song writer formerly with the hit group Fleetwood Mac.  As a member of Fleetwood Mac Christine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.  Christine also has released three solo albums and of her many hit songs “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”  both reached the Billboard’s Top 20 singles chart.

Families of children who became mysteriously sick in the so-called “cancer cluster” of Clyde, Ohio, have hired a private environmental engineer to test for toxic residue in their homes. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation previously found dangerous compounds in the soil of a nearby area, but a direct link to the children’s illnesses has not been established.

Like other cancer cluster areas, Clyde has an unusually high rate of cancer diagnoses. Since 1996, at least 37 children in the area have been diagnosed – and all live within 12 miles of each other. According to local news outlet Toledo Blade, four of these children have died.

In the fall of 2012, the EPA found high levels of toxic, possibly cancer-causing chemical compounds in soil samples from Whirlpool Park, formerly a residential area owned by home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corp from the 1950s until 2008. Locals told Fox Cleveland affiliate WJW that “black sludge” had been dumped in the area during that time.

While tests of non-residential sites in the Clyde area continue, some families with sick children are ordering private tests. Joel Hebdon, a specialist in hazardous waste who previously worked under the direction of the EPA, has been hired to analyze dust particles in the attics of the families’ homes.

Alan Mortensen, a lawyer for the families, told The Huffington Post in a phone interview that nine area homes will split the cost of Hebdon’s tests. All nine families have children who have been diagnosed with or died from cancer in recent years.

“The one thing that everyone has shared is the same air,” Mortensen said, referring to the high number of cancer cases in the small town. “If [the results are] reassuring, that’s one thing they can check off the list.”

Whirlpool Corp. in April will conduct an EPA-led assessment of soil and groundwater in Whirlpool Park. The company has said it had no idea there was contamination at the site until the EPA released its report in December 2012, the local Sandusky Register reported in November. Whirlpool has also offered to finance cleanup costs.

As recently as 2009, state agencies had conducted tests in the area and found that levels of contamination were not high enough to endanger the lives of nearby residents.

There have been no definitive answers as to what is causing such a high number of cancer cases among the area’s children in the past 17 years.

Hebdon told HuffPost he started collecting dust samples in Clyde on Monday, and that he plans to send those samples to a lab by Thursday. He said he expects to hear results within two weeks.

By: Hunter Stuart

Environmental engineer Joel Hebdon taking dust samples from the attic of Warren Brown on Monday. Brown, who lives in Clyde, lost his 11-year-old daughter to cancer in 2009. (photo credit: Michael Wise)

Donna Hisey and her son, Tanner, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia two years after his sister Tyler contracted acute myeloid leukemia. Tanner’s cancer went into remission in Dec. 2011. (photo credit: AP)

When you purchase your tickets to this years Albertsons Boise Open golf tournament you can select Trevor’s Trek Foundation to receive 100% of the proceeds from your ticket sales!  Visit the following link to purchase your tickets to this years Albertsons Boise Open Presented by Kraft and help children who have battled cancer! Thank you to the Albertsons Boise Open and their Tickets Fore Charity program!

Trevor’s Trek Foundation and the Albertsons Boise Open

This past week, Michigan Radio’s The Environment Report brought us a special series looking at the connections between cancer and the environment.

Producers looked at our current understanding of how the chemicals in our lives affect us, how neighbors in the White Lake area in West Michigan are mapping cancers, how some mothers in St. Clair County are asking why their children developed a rare type of cancer, how fights over potential carcinogens play out in court, and what scientists are doing to unlock the secrets of our genes.

They also collected stories of courage and warmth from those people affected by cancer around Michigan and posted their stories on a Tumblr page.

And finally, people were invited to ask questions in a “live-chat” with a noted expert on how some toxic substances might affect our health, Dr. Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas.

Here is a roundup of the stories produced for this series:

Our murky understanding of cancer and chemicals

In the opening installment of our Cancer and the Environment series, Mark Brush offers a primer on what we know about the way our surroundings influence cancer in our cells (a bit) – and what we don’t yet understand (a whole lot).

Brush speaks with a young woman who has been living with cancer since her late 20s and uncovers some disagreement amongst experts over how much of a role environmental factors play in overall cancer rates.

Brush reports that while know factors like genetics, smoking, diet and exercise play a part in cancer, many people in the field believe chemical substances found in the environment are drastically under-tested and under-regulated.

Mapping cancer cases in West Michigan

In part two of our series, Sarah Alvarez takes a look at the idea of cancer clusters—a place where more people have cancer than you’d expect to find in the rest of the population—and the serious difficulties in locating those clusters.

Alvarez takes us to a small town in western Michigan where the mother and the wife of a man who died of cancer  are working to document cancer cases in their community.

Alvarez reports that often this sort of data is just not collected by the government and it requires a lot of self-initiative from community members to make health officials aware of possible cancer clusters.

A cancer cluster of Michigan children

As follow-up to Sarah Alvarez’s piece, Rebecca Williams examines a confirmed cancer cluster in Michigan.

Williams takes us to St. Clair County where, since 2007, eight young children – and a possible ninth – have been diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer called Wilms’ tumor.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 550 children a year are diagnosed with Wilms’ tumor nationally.

But according to Williams, even with a confirmed cluster, finding and addressing a cause is quite difficult.

Suing over cancer

When somebody believes that something in their surroundings is making them sick, taking legal action seems like a pretty reasonable step for them to take, but as Sarah Alvarez reports, environmental pollution cases turn out to be really tough to win.

Alvarez tells the story of one such case involving a Dow Chemical plant in Michigan and nearby residents whose lawsuit has gone on for a frustrating nine years.

Alvarez looks at some of the reasons why these cases are often less-than-effective for plaintiffs and examines some new models being considered to address liability for environmental pollution.

Unlocking our cells’ secrets

In the final part of our week-long series, Mark Brush visits some researchers at the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Cancer Center who are looking deep into our cells for answers.

According to Brush, unlike older models where the focus was on finding a cure for cancer, a lot of research nowadays focuses on preventing cancer before it starts.

Brush says that cancer prevention  is still a huge field with many related pieces and can include cell biology research, like what’s going on at U of M, developing vaccines, or it can mean educating the public about the things researchers know can reduce cancer risk – things like maintaining a healthy weight, reducing emotional stress, eating the right foods, not smoking or drinking, reducing sun exposure, and exercising.

By: Michigan Radio Newsroom

Americans have never been more interested in their food and how it’s grown. And the disturbing reality is that the way most of our food is grown today hurts families, threatens future generations of farmers and squanders our natural heritage.

Across the nation, food and drinking water is being polluted with fertilizers and pesticides, antibiotics are becoming less effective and millions of acres of prairie and wetland are being lost forever.

Although many farmers do grow food in responsible ways, many more would do so if the government’s broken farm policies did more to reward good stewardship and didn’t encourage unsustainable crop and animal production.

The Balancing Act would provide full funding for the Department of Agriculture’s oversubscribed conservation programs, which help and reward farmers who take steps to produce food in ways that don’t harm families, farms and environment. The bill would also require that farmers who receive crop insurance subsidies to adopt basic environmental protections.

What’s more, the Balancing Act would reform USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Reserve Program to reduce the use of pesticides and unnecessary antibiotics and to provide long-term protection of wetlands and prairies. The bill also encourages greater farmer-to-farmer collaboration by delivering more support to groups of farmers who work together to protect drinking water supplies.

As members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees work on drafting a new farm bill, they have so far missed huge opportunities to expand these conservation programs and make every dollar count. Instead, they are choosing to cut these programs while spending even more on misguided crop insurance subsidies that encourage unsustainable farming practices. And they’re doing this at a time when millions of acres of wetlands and prairie are already being lost and America’s food and water is being polluted with pesticides and fertilizers.

By: Scott Faber, Vice President of Government Affairs

Heather Puryear, right, bought her house about two years ago, but now says, “I just want to get my kids out.”

Newark, Ohio — Ever since she learned what was lurking beneath the soil, Heather Puryear has been afraid of her home. She put a filter on the kitchen faucet, let the tomatoes out back rot on the vine. She cries thinking about what her five children might have been exposed to since they moved into their Licking County house nearly two years ago.

“We had no clue,” said Puryear, 31, standing on her porch and watching her boys toss a ball with the neighbor kids. “I’m scared to know what we’ve been breathing in.”

Officials monitoring the site of a decades-old, underground toxic plume say they don’t yet know how much, if any, gas has leaked to the surface and into eight Newark homes. But concern about rising toxicity levels in the area is forcing Puryear’s family and those living at seven other properties to vacate by next year.

“I just want to get my kids out,” said Puryear, who’d rather not wait the months it will take to negotiate a price for her home, which she and her husband bought for $80,000. “No one’s telling us how harmful it is.”

The problem is actually an old one, something that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been monitoring in Newark for more than two decades.

From 1940 to 1987, the Ohio Department of Transportation kept a test lab and equipment-maintenance facility on nearly 3 acres west of Rt. 79. During that time, ODOT used a powerful solvent at the site called trichloroethylene, or TCE, to separate asphalt and to clean grease from truck engines, said ODOT District 5 Deputy Director Joe Rutherford. It wasn’t thought to be harmful at the time.

But TCE turned out to be an environmental scourge. Health officials say it can cause anything from skin rash and headaches to kidney damage and cancer. At the ODOT site, the TCE crept deep into the soil. Getting rid of it has been a $12 million exercise in futility.

“Nothing that we’ve tried has been as successful as hoped,” Rutherford said.

ODOT tried trucking out soil to have it cleaned and returned, only to learn that the TCE was already in the ground water, 14 to 30 feet below the surface. They tried injecting a calcium peroxide product into the water to break up the TCE, but that didn’t work, either.

This summer, they noticed that the TCE plume, which had long been stationary beneath the old site, seemed to be spreading southeastward toward Rt. 79 and two clusters of homes, Rutherford said. The Ohio EPA recorded rising TCE concentrations, the highest numbers they’d seen in the area, spokeswoman Erin Strouse said.

ODOT called a meeting with the owners and tenants of eight properties on James and S. Pine streets and broke the news this month. They wanted to test the quality of the indoor air, and they wanted to buy and demolish everyone’s property. Owners were stunned.

Heather Price, 29, whose family of six lives across the street from Puryear, said she had mixed emotions about the announcement. Her family needed to move to a bigger home anyway, she said, and her children are excited to go.

“But I’m sad to see that the house is going to be torn down,” Price said, while feeding a bottle to her infant son on their porch. “We made a lot of memories here, and we put a lot of work into this house.”

Canisters were placed inside homes last week to collect air samples, and results are expected in about a month, Rutherford said. No matter the outcome, ODOT plans to proceed with the acquisition and demolition of the homes. The agency has about $1.5 million to spend on the process — testing air, buying homes and tearing them down, and relocating residents — and hopes to start moving families out before the end of the year.

Both Strouse of the EPA and Rutherford said they had no reason to believe the TCE posed an immediate risk to residents. No one drinks from the ground water, and toxicity hazards at this point are based only on computer models.

“If we really had any indication that there was a health issue, we’d get them out of there yesterday,” Rutherford said.

But since the announcement, some of the residents are starting to question their own health problems. Puryear said her eldest daughter, normally a healthy teenager, has had pneumonia twice since they moved to James Street. Farther down the road, at a home that’s not set to be demolished, a husband and wife both suffer from chronic kidney disease.

“What are the chances of both of us having this?” said Shirley Crawford, 73, who has lived next to the ODOT property for 37 years and had never before heard about TCE.

Crawford lives two doors down from one of the homes that will be torn down, and she’s worried not only about the value of her property after the demolition but about whether the plume will continue to spread.

“I want to know whether it’s safe for me to live here or not,” she said.

By: Lori Kurtzman

The Columbus Dispatch

Wisconsin Power & Light Co. and three other utilities will spend $1.2 billion to clean up coal-fired power plants and shut down older plants under a settlement announced Monday with federal regulators.

Under a settlement filed in federal court in Madison on Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department will assess a civil penalty of $2.45 million for alleged violations of air pollution laws over the years.

Madison-based Wisconsin Power & Light and the other utilities also agreed to pay $8.5 million to fund a series of environmental projects over the next five years. The projects include a $5 million investment in solar power and a $2 million investment to boost power production at wind and hydroelectric projects in Wisconsin.

But the big-ticket item in the settlement is the nearly $1.2 billion the utilities will spend to keep the largest of the coal plants operating by adding modern pollution controls.

The settlement was filed Monday and announced by the EPA, Sierra Club and Alliant Energy Corp., which owns WP&L.

In the works for months, the settlement primarily involves Wisconsin Power & Light, but includes utilities that co-own or previously co-owned coal-fired power plants with WP&L. Others named in the settlement are Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay, Madison Gas & Electric Co. and We Energies of Milwaukee.

“This settlement will improve air quality in Wisconsin and downwind areas by significantly reducing releases of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other harmful pollutants,” said Ignacia Moreno, an assistant U.S. attorney general, in a statement.

The reduction in coal-fired generation prompted by the settlement will reduce emissions of those pollutants – which are linked to smog, asthma, heart attacks and premature deaths – by 54,000 tons, the EPA said.

The agency alleged that the utilities had failed to comply with the Clean Air Act by not installing modern pollution controls when they performed upgrades to the power plants.

The case is similar to those EPA has filed around the country and in Wisconsin. It reached similar settlements last year with Wisconsin Public Service and Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse, and a federal judge in Milwaukee approved a similar settlement for We Energies’ coal plants in 2007.

Under the settlement, Wisconsin Power & Light has agreed to shut down the coal-fired power plant on the Mississippi River in Cassville. Just a few years ago, the utility was seeking to expand that plant.

In a new development, the settlement mandates that additional pollution controls be placed on one of the two boilers at one of the state’s largest coal plants, the Columbia power plant near Portage, said Steve Schultz, a spokesman for WP&L.

Under the agreement, the utility has committed to repower, refuel or add environmental controls to power plants in Sheboygan and Portage. MG&E and WPS are co-owners of those two plants, while We Energies formerly owned part of the Sheboygan plant, known as Edgewater.

In addition to the civil penalty, the consent decree spells out a series of environmental mitigation projects the EPA is requiring as part of the settlement.

By agreeing to stop burning coal at the Nelson Dewey plant in Cassville and two of the three boilers in Sheboygan, 590 megawatts of coal will be retired, or the equivalent of one large modern coal plant, according to the Sierra Club.

Statewide, including settlements with other utilities, the conservation group estimates that over 1,500 megawatts of coal power are being retired, or about 17% of the state’s fleet of coal plants.

Utility ratepayers won’t have to pay for the civil penalties, Schultz said. But it’s possible they could pay for the environmental mitigation costs.

And over time they will be on the hook for paying for the construction of environmental controls at the coal boilers that will remain open.

Those projects include a $627 million project at Columbia, a $153 million project at Edgewater, a $410 million project also at Edgewater, as well as another project at Columbia. The exact cost of that project isn’t yet available, Schultz said.

Story By: Thomas Content

Future Home of the Trevor’s Trek Children’s Cancer Pavilion in the east end of Julia Davis Park, Boise, Idaho

We would like to give a special thanks to Whole Foods Market Boise for holding a 5% day benefiting Trevor’s Trek this past April 10th.  The funds raised from this day will go to the construction of the Children’s Cancer Pavilion in Julia Davis Park, Boise, Idaho.  We hope to have the project completed by this fall to provide children who have battled cancer a place where they can congregate and draw strength from others who have similar experiences.  The Children’s Cancer Pavilion will recognize our young warriors who often feel isolated, and shunned from society because of this bully we call cancer.  The pavilion will be for everyone who visits Julia Davis Park to enjoy.  Please help us reach our fundraising goal and make your mark on Boise for many years to come!  Click Here to learn how!

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch are renewing their efforts to expand restitution for Idahoans and Americans living downwind of atomic weapons tests or working in uranium mines.  Crapo and Risch are joining Senators Tom Udall (D-New Mexico), Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) to introduce the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Amendments of 2013. Companion legislation is also being introduced in the House by Representative Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.-3).

April 19, 2013 is the 24^th anniversary of the introduction of the original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in the U.S. Senate.  Among other things, the RECA Amendments of 2013 would build upon previous RECA legislation by qualifying post 1971 uranium workers for compensation; equalizing compensation for all claimants to $150,000; expanding the downwind exposure area to include seven states downwind of the Nevada and Trinity Test Sites; and funding an epidemiological study of the health impacts on families of uranium workers and residents of uranium development communities.

“Idaho Communities and individuals that have been adversely affected by our nation’s weapons programs must be justly and sufficiently compensated by the federal government,” said Crapo. “Passage of this bipartisan legislation is crucial in ensuring Idahoans get the care they need.”

“This bill once again seeks a fair resolution for those people impacted by the nuclear testing program, just as others in surrounding states have been provided.  Idahoans deserve the same care and compensation because of the identical health effects,” said Risch.

“We have seen the heartbreaking effects of those who sacrificed their health and lives by working or living near uranium mines and nuclear test sites in the mid-20^th century,” said Tom Udall. “Many Americans unwittingly paid the price for our national security, and unfortunately, some victims fell through the cracks in the original legislation. Expanding RECA will provide these individuals with recognition so that they can receive the much needed compensation they deserve.”

Specifically, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2013 would:

• Extend compensation to employees of mines and mills employed after Dec. 31, 1971.  These are individuals who began working in uranium mines and mills after the U.S. stopped purchasing uranium, but failed to implement and enforce adequate uranium mining safety standards. Many of these workers have the same illnesses as pre-1971 workers who currently qualify for RECA compensation.

• Add core drillers to the list of compensable employees, which currently only includes miners, millers and ore transporters.

• Add renal cancer, or any other chronic renal disease, to the list of compensable diseases for employees of mines and mills. Currently, millers and transporters are covered for kidney disease, but miners are not.

• Allow claimants to combine work histories to meet the requirement of the legislation. For example, individuals who worked for a short time in a mill and for a short time in a mine would be able to add that period of time up to meet the work history eligibility requirements for compensation. Currently, the Department of Justice makes some exceptions for this, but the policy is not codified in law.

• Make all claimants eligible for an equal amount of compensation, specifically $150,000, regardless of whether they are millers, miners, ore transporters, onsite employees, or downwinders.

• Make all claimants eligible for medical benefits. Currently, only miners, millers and ore transporters can claim medical benefits through the medical expense compensation program.

• Recognize radiation exposure from the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, as well as tests in the Pacific Ocean.

• Expand the downwind areas to include all of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Utah for the Nevada Test Site; New Mexico for the Trinity Test Site; and Guam for the Pacific tests.

• Allow the use of affidavits to substantiate employment history, presence in affected area, and work at a test site. Current legislation only allows miners to use affidavits.

• Return all attorney fees to a cap of 10 percent of the amount of the RECA claim, as was mandated in the original 1990 RECA legislation.

• Authorize $3 million for five years for epidemiological research on the impacts of uranium developmenton communities and families of uranium workers. The funds would be allocated to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to award grants to universities and non-profits to carry out the research.

• Allow in the miners, millers, core drillers, and ore transporters to file a Special Exposure Cohort petition within the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). Other DOE workers are currently allowed to file such petitions for compensation when claims are denied and there is not enough information for NIOSH to do dose reconstruction to determine the impacts of exposure.