Dr. Ken Silver Highlights Accomplishments of Workers Compensation Pioneer
Dr. Ken Silver, Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health, at East Tennessee State University, first met Ben Ortiz in 1999 when he was working as a consultant for the University of New Mexico under a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ortiz, a former mechanical technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory collaborated with Silver to found the Los Alamos Project on Worker Safety, launching a grass-roots organizing campaign for workers compensation for illnesses caused by exposure to toxic and radioactive substances at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The accomplishments of Ben Ortiz, who died on July 18 at age 77, are highlighted in articles on his life published in the Santa Fe New Mexican and in the Los Alamos Daily Post.
In 1999, former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson launched a joint initiative with the former Energy Department Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health David Michaels to develop a compensation program and address safety concerns raised by both constituents in New Mexico and a group of activists from the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Silver and Ben Ortiz mobilized residents of New Mexico to turn out for and testify at field hearings, meet with elected officials, and petition for federal compensation legislation. They sent out dozens of action alerts to several hundred stakeholders, co-authored an op-ed essay in the Albuquerque Tribune, and issued a public interest research report
President Bill Clinton signed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) in October 2000. Part E amendments to EEOICPA, effective in 2005, finally compensated Ben Ortiz and others like him affected by toxic chemical exposures.
Ben will long be remembered for his tireless advocacy on behalf of Department of Energy workers, wrote New Mexicos senior U.S. Senator Tom Udall in condolence letter to the Ortiz family, citing his ongoing, unselfish role in helping give a voice to those people whose voices often go unheard.
Dr. Silver added, The successful work we did together with Ben as a regional leader is something we average citizens need to do much more of. Terrible injustices can be overcome, powerful institutions can be made more truthful and transparent, and best of all, great and enduring relationships can be forged among new friends.
A peer-reviewed article in in the Fall 2014 issue of New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental Occupational Health Policy (24(3): 303-319) highlights some of the community-based work Dr. Silver has done with Los Alamos EEOICPA claimants. http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/25261024