By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – The Department of Health and Human Services has given the go-ahead to speed up payments to Cold War era workers at plants where nuclear weapons were made.
U.S. Senator Kit Bond's office announced the decision Tuesday. It will become effective 30 days after it is submitted to Congress, unless Congress halts the payments.
In a February meeting in St. Louis, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommended expedited payments for employees with 22 types of cancer tied to radiation exposure.
The employees worked from 1942 to 1948 at the Mallinckrodt Chemical plant in St. Louis and the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown, Iowa.
The workers, or their survivors, will be eligible for up to $150,000 from the federal government.