Verle Green had never heard of radiation poisoning when he went to work at one of southeastern Utah's booming uranium mines in the late 1950s.

But now the 65-year-old Moab resident has a constant reminder of the danger he was unknowingly exposed to: severe shortness of breath and persistent bronchitis from inhaling radioactive dust."Most of the damage is to the lungs," he said. "We knew the dust was bothering us, but we didn't know it was radioactive."

Green was scheduled to join other miners, mill workers and their family members or survivors at public hearings Friday in Nucla, Colo., and Saturday in Moab to hear experts discuss the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990.

The meetings were intended to educate the public and Congress about what some perceive as RECA's shortcomings. The meetings are co-sponsored by St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where a procedure for evaluating the link between lung disease and lung cancer and radiation exposure was developed, and the Small Miners Association.

RECA provides a one-time payment of $100,000 to miners or their survivors if damage to their health can be proved and the miner worked an established number of hours in the mines prior to 1971.

"This law was passed in 1990 to help uranium miners. But in reality its restrictions have set up nearly impossible hurdles for those filing claims and seems to have hurt more miners than it has helped," said Becky Rockwell, a private investigator from Durango, Colo., who works on behalf of miners or miners' families whose claims have been denied.

Rockwell urged St. Mary's Hospital and the SMA to sponsor the meeting and says her mission is to bolster the rights of the men who are suffering because of uranium mining.

"In order for us to lobby Congress to get this law changed, we have to hold public meetings, and the evidence presented to Congress must be based on scientific fact," she said.

Green, who was a driller, said he became involved in the issue after a fellow mine worker struggled to receive compensation.

"One of the things that is difficult for people is you have to prove damage, and you need a lawyer to do it," he said. "And the damage usually doesn't show up until years later, and usually it shows up in the lungs. So there is a lot of medical work involved in making your case."

Green said some people are trying to amend RECA to include mill workers.

"For the miners, it was dusty and smoky and sometimes you couldn't even see the boulder in front of you. But the mill workers were breathing and sorting through this stuff just as well," he said.

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In 1971 the companies began to keep a better watch on the radon levels and began providing better ventilation, masks and other methods of reducing the intake of uranium dust by those who mined the ore, Green said.

But by then, the uranium boom began to wane and many workers had already been exposed. In fact, most of the mines and mills along the Colorado Plateau that boomed in the 1950s and 1960s were closed by the early 1980s.

"I'd like to help out any miners who qualify for it (RECA) or widows who qualify for it," Green said. "A lot of people have already died of cancer, and people who are still living have a hard time getting through the process."

Members of Congress from the Four Corner states - Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah - have been invited to attend the meetings.

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