SRS workers' sacrifice must be compensated

I was born in Richmond County, and worked 15 years at Savannah River Site - five years in security and 10 years in the reactor department as a building operator. I worked with very high radiation on a daily basis, and crawled over water pipes that were covered in asbestos; the white powder was so loose that you had to shake it out of your hair and clean your face, arms and clothes with towels.

I get a shot once a month that costs $7,000. I have paid more than $50,000 in medical and drug-store bills since 1997.

In 2004, Dr. Knute Ringen, principal investigator for the Augusta Building Trades Medical Screening Program, told almost 300 present and past SRS workers that we had not been told the truth about the dangers of working at SRS - and that, in the past, when things went wrong, the Department of Energy had gone to great efforts to cover this up. People came to the meeting because they had been turned down by the departments of Energy and Labor, asking for medication just like I was, and the answer was always "no."

IN 2005, A Labor representative from Jacksonville, Fla., came up and gave a speech about how the department was going to help us. Last March, we had another meeting and the same past and present workers showed up - and they were still being told "no." You will not get any help from the Department of Labor.

I have been to the offices of members of Congress, and they said they would be willing to help. But the real problem is that no one cares. It's not their husbands, sons or daughters who are dying and having to do without medication just to be treated, not cured.

Why is a country willing to kill its own people? Why does a country send someone down here just to tell us lies? I have sent more than 1,000 pages of medical history from SRS and letters from my doctors stating that my lung problems came from my working at SRS. I have never smoked. I have been turned down five times. I have begged my country just for medication, and the answer is always "no."

THESE SRS workers, like me, are not ashamed of what we did to keep our country free. We would still do it again if that were the cost of freedom. Maybe we need to march down to our congressmens' office, and show our leaders that we require medication and other things just to stay alive. We could call it the DOE Death March. I have had congressmen write letters before on my behalf, and they get back nice form letters telling them that they are looking into my case. Real answer: "No."

You and I paid taxes, and we served and fought to keep this country free. Was there a great plan for all of us to get sick? No. But when officials did find out, still nothing changes. See the movie Silkwood, about a whistleblower at a nuclear power plant, and I will have to say nothing more.

I understand that there are more than a million people like me who have been turned down.

(Editor's note: The writer is an Augusta resident.)