The Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act was passed by the United States Government in 2000. The goal of the program is to compensate workers who were employed by Atomic Weapons Employers and the Department of Energy who became ill with cancer or other occupational illnesses as a result of their employment. In the language of the EEOICP the United States Government acknowledged responsibility for placing employees in dangerous work environments without full disclosure. At over 300 or more facilities across the United States, beginning with the Manhattan Project, workers were exposed to radiation and other harmful chemicals. The United States Government accepted responsibility for placing men and women in these facilities beginning in WWII and the creation of the atomic bomb, throughout the cold war to recent time without informing them of the risks involved in their employment or proper protection. While working within these facilities the employees were exposed to radiation and other chemicals and toxins like beryllium and asbestos which were extremely harmful. Many workers were later devastated with cancer and other occupational illnesses caused by the exposure at these facilities. In accepting the responsibility for placing the employees in dangerous work environments the United States Government passed this legislation into law and now compensates those qualified surviving workers or their families.
Since World War II Federal nuclear activities have been explicitly recognized by the United States Government as an ultra-hazardous activity under Federal law. Nuclear weapons production and testing involved unique dangers, including potential catastrophic nuclear accidents that private insurance carriers would not cover, as well as chronic exposures to radioactive and hazardous substances, such as beryllium and silica, that even in small amounts could cause medical harm. EEOICPA 2000
Since the inception of the nuclear weapons program and for several decades afterwards, large numbers of nuclear weapons workers at Department of Energy and at vendor sites who supplied the Cold War effort were put at risk without their knowledge and consent for reasons that, documents reveal, were driven by fears of adverse publicity, liability, and employee demands for hazardous duty pay. EEOICPA 2000
Since the inception of the nuclear weapons program and for several decades afterwards, large numbers of nuclear weapons workers at Department of Energy and at vendor sites who supplied the Cold War effort were put at risk without their knowledge and consent for reasons that, documents reveal, were driven by fears of adverse publicity, liability, and employee demands for hazardous duty pay. EEOICPA 2000
