Program and Medical Exam Eligibility

To be eligible for a free medical exam, former LANL workers must have:

  • Worked at the LANL site anytime between 1943 and the present; and
  • Been significantly exposed to one or more of these agents: asbestos, beryllium, lead, noise, radiation, and solvents.
  • Been employed by one or more of the following:
    • University of California
    • Zia
    • Pan Am World Services
    • Johnson Controls International
    • Johnson Controls of Northern New Mexico
    • other subcontractors

To be eligible for a free medical exam, former SNL-AL workers must have:

  • Worked at the SNL site anytime between 1949 and the present; and
  • Been significantly exposed to one or more of these agents: asbestos, beryllium, lead, noise, radiation, silica, and solvents.
  • Been employed by one or more of the following employers:
    • Z Division Sandia Laboratories
    • Sandia Corporation (Western Electric)
    • Sandia Corporation (Lockheed Martin)
    • Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-AL)

The Former Worker Medical Screening Program offers former workers a one-time free medical exam with selected tests. Former LANL and SNL-AL workers who participate in the program are eligible for re-examination and re-testing if they had past exposure to asbestos and/or beryllium and/or radiation and/or silica (for SNL-AL former workers only). These re-exams are available if it has been three years since the initial examination or re-exam. A limited number of exams will be provided to former LANL and SNL-AL workers who wish to receive an exam but who do not meet the above eligibility requirements.

The exam and testing will address the possible health issues identified by a confidential exposure questionnaire. Not all participants will receive all of the tests. At the time of the exam, former workers are asked to read and sign several consent forms including a medical record release form.

Medical Exam

The type of exam and tests vary by the type of exposures that the former worker had at work. Each former worker’s exam will focus on the parts of the body that may have been affected by the types of exposures that were discussed in the exposure and medical history interview. Specific tests depend on the exposures the worker had at LANL or SNL-AL. 

The Former Worker Medical Screening Program at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories offers re-examinations and testing to former workers who participated in the program in the past and who were examined for possible health effects related to past exposures to asbestos, beryllium, radiation and silica (Sandia only). Former workers are asked to complete a short interview to review any changes since the original exposure and medical history interview.

DOE National Supplemental Screening Program (NSSP)

Former nuclear facilities workers who do not live near a medical screening site, or who worked for a facility that does not have an established Former Worker Program, are referred to the National Supplemental Screening Program (NSSP) for their examination and testing. Former LANL and SN-AL workers who participate via the National Supplemental Screening Program complete an exposure and medical history questionnaire from the Medical Exam Program for former workers at LANL and SNL-AL. We advise the NSSP of the recommended testing that should be conducted based on the exposure and medical history interview. The former worker is then contacted by the NSSP, and a medical screening examination is scheduled at a participating clinic closest to the former worker’s current address. The NSSP reviews the examination and testing results, and a results letter is sent to the former worker and (with the former worker's consent) to the medical exam program for former workers at LANL and SNL-AL. The test results will then be included in our medical results database.

If you are interested in participating in the program, please call 1-877-500-8615 (toll-free) or 505-753-0193 (local), or e-mail, fwp@jh.edu.