The U-S Energy Department will open nine more medical-screening prgorams for former defense workers. Secondhand victims of combat, the people who worked at plants making weapons or ammunition say now they’re sick, dying from conditions caused by the toxic materials they used. A clinic has been serving workers from the Iowa Ammunition Project west of Burlington, and with this week’s announcement, one of nine additional sites will offer screenings to former employees of the Ames lab. Established in the 1940s, the lab helped purify uranium for early nuclear plants. Assistant energy secretary JOhn Shaw says while they won’t get any treatment, former workers at Ames and eight other government sites can go in for screening. If the new clinic informs them they have work-related illness, they can seek medical care. As for compensation, officials in the Department of Energy say that’s now handled through the Department of Labor.
