Kennedy questions TI president about cancer cases

Kennedy questions TI president about cancer cases

BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF | Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 2:51 pm

The plight of former Attleboro area atomic site workers suffering from cancer has reached the halls of

Congress.

Texas Instruments President and CEO Richard Templeton said during a hearing today in Washington that his company would re-examine whether more needs to be done to communicate to former workers at its Attleboro plant about the availability of federal government help.

Templeton’s remarks came during a hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and

Technology in response to questions by U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy concerning reports of many cases of cancer among workers from the former Metals and Controls plant which made nuclear fuels and other radioactive components from the early 1950s until 1981, according to federal government records.

Some former workers have complained that neither the government nor their employer actively sought to inform workers about compensation and medical care available through the Energy Employees

Occupational Illness Compensation Program.

Kennedy referenced a report in Sunday’s edition of The Sun Chronicle quoting former workers and citing millions of federal dollars already spent to compensate former Attleboro plant workers. He said that while the effects of the country’s nuclear program are not limited to Attleboro or TI, more could be done to reach out to affected workers. Kennedy offered to work with the company to facilitate sharing of information.

Templeton said TI has cooperated with federal agencies, including the Department of Labor and

Department of Energy and wants to see if additional steps are needed.

“We need to stay in contact between the appropriate government agencies and your office,” he said.

“We’ve been very active with the departments to make sure any information we could help with was

available and we need to continue that, take a look if there’s more that could be done, we should be doing it with you.”

Templeton’s remarks came during a committee hearing dealing with U.S. competitiveness in science,

math and technology education.

Larry Darcey, a former TI manager from Rehoboth, told The Sun Chronicle he and others tracked down at least 170 former plant workers with cancer.

A federal program that pays compensation and medical care for nuclear workers with certain types of

cancer has paid out $30 million covering more than 300 cases, according to federal Department of Labor statistics.

According to Nuclear Regulatory Commission records, the Attleboro plant made nuclear fuel and other

components for the Navy and other government and private companies beginning around 1952.

The Attleboro manufacturing complex underwent a major decontamination effort during the 1990s

following which federal and state agencies signed off on the property saying no further remediation was

required to make the property safe.

Texas Instruments sold the industrial site in 2006. A spinoff company, Sensata Technologies, still uses a part of the location.