State Senate passes bill to help ill Hanford workers

A bill that should help more ill Hanford nuclear reservation workers qualify for state worker compensation was approved by the Washington state Senate Thursday night.

The vote was 35-14.

It returns to the House for concurrence on an amendment, but then could go to the governor to be signed into law.

The legislative effort had started last year with a bill sponsored by Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, a former longtime Hanford worker. The bill passed the House, but did not advance to the floor of the Senate until Thursday.

The bill would require the state’s worker compensation program to presume that a wide range of diseases were caused by occupational exposure at the nuclear reservation, rather that requiring employees to prove that it was Hanford exposure that made them ill.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article196783609.html