Radiation Disability: Will it Be Adequately Compensated?

Abstract

While electorates and governments struggle to assess the difficult technical and political issues of nuclear armament and, especially, the testing of such weapons, the radiation hazard of industrial uses of atomic products has become a fact for an increasing number of workers. Industrial applications of radioactive isotopes and nuclear energy are multiplying rapidly and the number of workers exposed to the risk of illness and death from such sources also appears to be increasing. Under private use, workers injured and disabled by radiation must seek the protection of state workmen's compensation laws for medical and economic rehabilitation. In this discussion, the author examines the reasons for growing concern over radiation as an occupational hazard and analyzes four basic issues which radiation disease presents for state workmen's compensation laws. In general, he finds that only a few of these laws approach recommended standards of protection; under a number of laws, workers injured by exposure to radiation actually receive protection and benefits less favorable than those available to the victims of more conventional industrial accidents and disease. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)