2 Investigators

JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) ― They say they were hired to make laundry detergent, but unknowingly were used to process weapons grade uranium for atomic bombs. Now hundreds of local factory workers blame their cancers on what has turned into a "toxic legacy." CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reveals their fight for justice - and how taxpayers are footing the bill.

Phyllis Keca and Martha Stahl are widows of chemical plant workers who were unknowingly exposed to deadly radiation.

"When he would come home from work, he would be covered with this dust," said Phyllis Keca. "A yellow dust."

"They called it yellow cake - the uranium," said Martha Stahl.

"I was not alerted to the real 100 percent dangers of working in this place," said Tony D'Atri.

Tony D'Atri worked at the same plant called Blockson Chemical, and later the Olin Corporation. During the 1950s and '60s, the Joliet company had a secret weapons contract with the United States Atomic Energy Commission to produce millions of pounds of weapons grade uranium.

D'Atri said he worked with uranium every day, and was exposed to deadly radiation. D'Atri and other workers breathed in dust as they processed uranium and packed it in barrels.

When asked if he had breathing apparatus or a protective suit, D'Atri said, "No, nothing like that. You wore your street clothes."

Martha Stahl points to a picture from 1953 of her husband, Raymond, working at the plant in street clothes. She says he and other workers thought they were making laundry detergent, and had no idea they were in some way helping build atomic bombs.

D'Atri believes the radiation exposure caused him to get colon cancer. He's not alone.

Two hundred and thirteen health claims have been lodged against the U.S. government for what happened to workers at this facility; 75 percent of the claims have been rejected.

Attorney Dennis Kellogg represents 20 workers who have died or have cancer. Only five of his clients have been awarded money for the deadly exposure.

Kellogg says the agency handling these claims, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, has been rejecting the majority of claims without any real explanation.

"Is this system working?" Kellogg said. "Barely, I would say."

And the rejections continue, even after promises to look into the process by then-Sen. Barack Obama.

"These workers performed tasks," Obama said.

Phyllis Keca and her son talked to the senator in 2006 about her husband John's struggle with cancer, his death and their financial turmoil.

"President Obama gave us all a whole bunch of hope that he was going to help us do something about it," Keca said.

She never received a dime.

"It seems so hopeless," Keca said.

There are also deep concerns that family members of workers were exposed to toxic dangers.

And since they say they didn't know about the radiation, the workers and their families say they often brought used barrels from the chemical plant home. Some of them used the barrels to store toys and athletic gear.

That's on top of the contaminated clothing workers brought home daily.

Stahl says not only did her husband get cancer, but she did as well; along with her daughter. And some of her other kids got sick, too.

D'Atri's wife had two miscarriages; his daughter had thyroid problems; his grandson has Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He worries that he passed his radiation exposure on to his descendants.

"They mean the world to me," D'Atri said. "I live for my family."

"They should fess up to what they did out there and pay the families," Stahl said.

"I just keep thinking that millions of dollars have been spent trying to keep people from getting the money," Keca said.

So far $8 million of your tax dollars have been paid to 53 workers who got sick at the Joliet facility. Another 160 like Tony D'Atri and John Keca have received nothing.

Martha Stahl did get compensated by the government for $150,000, but that money went to her husband's nursing home care.

Altogether nationwide $4.5 billion have been paid to workers who did similar work in other states.

President Obama's press office says he believes workers have waited for far too long to receive the benefits they deserve.

A NIOSH spokesman says they've approved 32 percent of claims, and they have about 250 people working on these cases and try to be favorable to those who got sick.

The company declined comment.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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