Mallinckrodt workers notified of exposure designation

The U.S. Department of Labor has notified all former Mallinckrodt Chemical Company, Destrehan Street Plant workers about a new class of employees added to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act's (EEOICPA) Special Exposure Cohort (SEC). The EEOICPA provides compensation and medical benefits to employees who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. Survivors of qualified employees may also be entitled to benefits. A worker who is included in a designated SEC class of employees, and who is diagnosed with one of 22 specified cancers, may receive a presumption of causation under the act. To date, more than $80 million in compensation and medical benefits has been paid to eligible Mallinckrodt Chemical Company, Destrehan Street Plant employees and more than $4.6 billion in compensation and medical benefits has been paid to eligible claimants nationwide under the act.

"The new SEC at Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., Destrehan Street Plant will allow deserving individuals to quickly receive the compensation they are entitled to under the act," said Rachel P. Leiton, director of the Labor Department's Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation, which administers the EEOICPA. "We are proud to have paid more than $80 million in compensation and medical benefits to these Destrehan Street Plant workers thus far, and hope all qualified employees will file claims with the program."

The new SEC class includes all employees of the U.S. Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked in the Uranium Division at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Company, Destrehan Street Plant in St. Louis, Mo., from January 1, 1958, to December 31, 1958, for 250 workdays, occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with workdays within one or more other classes of employees in the SEC.

For additional information about the new SEC at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., Destrehan Street Plant, or to schedule an appointment for claim-filing assistance, please call the department's Paducah Resource Center toll-free at 866-534-0599.