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May. 19, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Widow battles red tape in bid for compensation

By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Bonnie and John Mattick are shown in their home about three years before John Mattick died of cancer in 2001. Bonnie Mattick is trying to be compensated by the government for his illness, which she says came from his work at the Nevada Test Site.
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Mattick.

Bonnie Mattick knows the painstaking process of wrangling with the Department of Labor to receive compensation for her late husband's cancer death that she blames on his exposure to toxic and radioactive materials at the Nevada Test Site.

Since 2001, she has sent 52 letters to officials regarding her quest for at least $150,000 that she claims she's entitled to under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Her journey through the red tape and bureaucracy began a year after Congress launched the program.

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    • Now, after denials and two appeals and dealing with two dozen different Labor Department examiners who have reviewed the files of her husband, John Mattick, she is still at square one.

    "I'm not giving up on this," she said in a telephone interview Thursday from Phoenix, where the couple moved in 1997 after John Mattick's last stint as an industrial hygienist at the Nevada Test Site.

    He died in 2001 of cancer at age 53. He had worked as an industrial hygienist and environmental engineer for two contractors from 1974 to 1981 and from 1989 to 1996. He was a senior environmental engineer for Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co. and EG&G.

    After he left the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, he was diagnosed with three types of cancer, including bone cancer.

    Much of his work involved going to the back of tunnels where nuclear devices had been detonated to collect samples for analysis.

    "He had access to all areas at the Nevada Test Site and Area 51. He was required to re-enter the tunnels on numerous occasions," Mattick said.

    But when she tried to process her compensation claim as his survivor, the Department of Energy provided her with only partial records, she said. Much of the documentation about his exposures was missing, and that has hindered her attempt to prove that his work involving toxic and radioactive material more than likely caused his cancers, she said.

    The Labor Department said the dose reconstruction showed there was a 29 percent chance his cancer was caused by exposure to harmful materials at the test site.

    If dose reconstructions show that workers' cancers are more than likely caused by their workplace exposures, then they stand to receive $150,000 each in compensation plus reimbursements for medical costs.

    Mattick has since sent a letter seeking more records she feels will bolster her case.

    She said based on her experience it is obvious that the Labor Department is bent on denying claims rather than giving claimants the benefit of the doubt.

    "What I want to do is expose the Department of Labor and their inability to act on all the information they've been given," she said.

    As of November, the Labor Department had paid $18.9 million to 161 former test site workers or their survivors after dose reconstructions showed their illnesses probably were linked to exposure to radioactive materials at the test site.

    Labor Department officials have declined to comment on specific cases.



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    Bozo wrote on May 19, 2008 02:18 PM: There is one problem with Ms. Mattick approach. And, that problem is she is not asking for enough money. Who in government is going to listen to a request for $150,000.00. The answer no one. My suggestion is to file for 5 to 10 million. Now, now she will get some ones attention. And most likely that some one will be an attorney that will take her case for half or more. And, the more she ask for, the better the odds are that they will settle. Just send me some of the settlement for the suggestion..


    Harry Reid wrote on May 19, 2008 12:26 PM: WHAT A GOLDDIGGER!


    Robert Walker wrote on May 19, 2008 08:00 AM: All she has to do is go to Political Leadership Alliance of Nevada, and tell them she is an illegal alien, and she'll get her compensation. She might also ask Don Chairez for help. He seems to think an American on the Supreme Court is not good enough. He told a group of Hispanics In Politics, that it's time for a Hispanic on the Supreme court. I reckon he wants to keep the country separated along racial and ethnic lines.


    Mama Bear wrote on May 19, 2008 07:45 AM: It's part of the same government that has tried to convince Nevadans that Yucca Mountain is a safe project based upon their own "scientific" reports.

    "Scientific reports" to the DOE, and the Federal Government is nothing more than polluted propaganda. Real, internatioanlly recognized, independent scientists know these are bogus, and are not to be confused with sound science. Letting the government explain "science" is like endorsing the axioms of family values as presented by Warren Jeffs.


    Judy wrote on May 19, 2008 07:32 AM: The Dept of Labor will fight to the end to not pay out $150,000 to Americans that are entitled to the copensation by law after being exposed to harmful, cancer causing agent on the job HOWEVER we send billions and billions to Iraq. For what? To keep the price of oil down? To fight non-existant terrorists there?
    Pay the woman for christ sake.