Former Worker Medical Screening Program
FWP

Background:

The Former Worker Medical Screening Program (FWP) supports the Office of Health and Safety's mission and strategic response by funding external teams of health experts to independently offer medical screening to former workers who may be at significant risk for occupational diseases.

The FWP teams collect available site and deidentified worker health information from these projects, which is made available to DOE and other interested parties. Individual project final reports will also be made available to DOE workers and communities.

The FWP was first established in 1994, following the issuance of the 1993 Defense Authorization Act (PL 102-484)", which called for DOE to assist workers with determining whether they had health issues related to their prior work with DOE. Site- and population-specific medical screening efforts were initiated in 1996. The FWP has been conducted using cooperative agreements held by consortia of universities, labor unions, and commercial organizations with expertise in administration of medical programs.

These medical screening projects provide notification to members of the at-risk groups and medical screening examinations for interested individuals. These examinations have been designed to check for adverse health outcomes related to occupational exposures (such as beryllium, asbestos, silica, welding fumes, lead, cadmium, chromium, and solvents).

Workers eligible for this program include all former DOE federal and contractor employees from all DOE sites.

In FY 2005, DOE also initiated a separate beryllium sensitization screening effort for employees of defunct DOE beryllium vendors who were employed with these companies while they performed work for DOE. These individuals typically have no other access to the beryllium sensitization screening, because their employers are no longer in business.

Most participants of the FWP and the beryllium vendor screening program have been reassured that they were not harmed, and those with medical findings have been assisted with referral for medical follow-up and/or to the Department of Labor's Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP).

Program Manager: Mary Fields

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