By Gerry Smith
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO – Four years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama called them “veterans of the Cold War” and pledged to help them receive compensation.
But today, many former workers at Blockson Chemical Co. in Joliet, Ill., and their survivors still have not been paid from a fund created in 2000 to make amends for exposing the workers to high levels of radiation without telling them or providing adequate protection.
Among them is Phyllis Keca, 84, whose husband, John, thought he was manufacturing laundry detergents during his 23 years working at Blockson. He wore only a paper mask while handling tanks that, unknown to him, were filled with uranium and radium to be used in the production of nuclear weapons.