Atlanta’s WSB-TV reports that more than 200 workers who helped clean up a massive coal ash spill a decade ago say they have suffered devastating health issues as a result. Workers exposed to the ash claim they have been stricken by illnesses – some of which are fatal – that include cancer of the brain, blood, lungs and skin.
Unfortunately, the workers have been forced to file lawsuits to try to obtain the medical care they so urgently need for these occupational illnesses.
According to the news report, more than a billion gallons of coal ash were released in late December of 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, about 200 miles north of Jonesboro.
A jury has decided that a TVA contractor, Jacobs Engineering, breached its duties to worker safety by exposing hundreds of employees cleaning up the release. They were exposed to airborne “fly ash” and its carcinogens.
A second phase of the trial is to be held to determine if the contractors actions caused the injuries to the workers.
One worker’s wife, whose husband now has a blood cancer after he drove a fuel truck at the site, is outraged that the fight for compensation is still going on. “To have the burden put on you, that you have to prove what caused these horrific things — that’s an atrocity,” she said.
We hope these workers get the medical help and compensation they need in a timely manner.
Those who have been denied Georgia workers’ comp should contact a Jonesboro attorney experienced in appeals that can help you get the benefits that you have earned and that you deserve and need.