Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health

December 21, 2022

Mr. Martin J. Walsh

Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor
Frances Perkins Building

200 Constitution Ave.

Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Walsh:

Iam pleased to transmit a recommendation of the Department of Labor Advisory Board
on Toxic Substances and Worker Health in relation to the Board’s advisory capacity to the
Energy Employees’ Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP). It was adopted
unanimously at our meeting on December 1, 2022 meeting. It is:

Exposure Evaluations for Claimants Who Worked Widely Within a Department of
Energy Site

The Board hopes that our input is useful to EEOICP. It remains an honor for the Board to
be consulted on important issues that face the Program. I would be pleased to answer any
questions.

Sincerely,
a

Steven Markowitz MD, DrPH

Chair

Advisory Board on Toxic Substances
and Worker Health


Exposure Evaluations for Claimants Who Worked Widely Within a Department of
Energy Site

Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health Recommendation

(Adopted by the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health,
December 1, 2022)

Recommendation

The Board recommends that the Department of Labor provide instruction to claims
examiners, industrial hygienists, and contract medical consultant reviewers that, if there
is evidence that a claimant’s employment led to their routine duties being performed
widely across a site, this be specifically noted in the claim file and that consideration be
given in establishing toxic substance exposure and causation for exposures that are site-
wide and not just limited to their work area of record.

Rationale

The Board recognizes that the Site Exposure Matrices is a very useful tool for identifying
some potential exposures to toxic substances at Department of Energy sites in relation to
claims for compensation. However, there is broad agreement that, due to the incomplete
nature of historic data or other evidence concerning potential exposures that occurred at
Department of Energy sites, the Site Exposure Matrices provide only a partial view of
such potential exposures. This limitation is in part mitigated by other sources of exposure
information that are used in the claims” evaluation process.

This limitation in the Site Exposure Matrices is most conspicuous for occupations whose
work tasks routinely require that they work in many areas and buildings at a Department
of Energy site. These occupations include, for example, security guards, firefighters,
health physics technicians and others. We have noted very considerable variation in the
number and types of toxic substances associated with these job titles at different sites
with the Department of Energy complex.

To address the limitation in the Site Exposure Matrices for these occupations, the claims
examiners can ensure a more informed and fairer evaluation of potential exposures for a
defined and finite set of these occupations through identifying their claims and through
the routine referral of their claims for an industrial hygiene evaluation, indicating in the
request that it is accepted that the claimant may have had a broader profile of exposure to
toxic substances than the Site Exposure Matrices indicates. Such a communication should
also be made to any contract medical consultants who are providing evaluations of these
claims.