"Feds Not Handling Women’s Uranium Claims"

"The clerks and secretaries who worked in the Atomic Energy Commission offices in Grand Junction during World War II and later during the Cold War handled ore samples and were frequently in and around milling products.

One of them, Patie Claypoole of Grand Junction, has developed a pulmonary fibrosis, a condition for which she could receive a compassionate payment from the federal government and medical care, except for one thing. She wasn’t a miner, miller or ore hauler, three occupations compensated in the 1991 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

As a federal employee, Claypoole is ineligible for any payments under current federal law, as she has been informed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which administers the compensation program."

Gary Harmon reports for the Grand Junction Sentinel July 5, 2010.