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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service

National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health

Robert A. Taft Laboratories

4676 Columbia Parkway

Cincinnati, OH 45226-1998

Dear ADDRESSEE (See attached):

Iam writing to seek your input into the development of a new occupational illness compensation
program. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000, and
Executive Order 13179, have delegated several responsibilities to the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The establishment of an Advisory Board on
Radiation and Worker Health, management of records and data, and the appointment of
physicians to medical panels (administered & funded by DOE) are included in these
responsibilities. Additionally, and of more immediate concern, the following responsibilities
require the development of guidelines and promulgation of regulations.

1. Promulgate regulations: a) to be used by the Department of Labor to assess the
probability that a claimant’s cancer was caused by his or her occupational exposure to
radiation while employed as a nuclear weapons worker (“probability of causation”), and
b) to be used by NIOSH to estimate the cumulative past radiation‘doses incurred by
individual claimants (“dose reconstruction”) [Sec. 3623(c), (d)]: .

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2. Estimate the radiation doses incurred by individual claimants, using the dose reconstruction
methods NIOSH promulgates as regulations [Sec. 3623(d) & (e), 3624(b)(2)].

3. Establish (potentially through regulation) and implement a process within HHS for the
Secretary of HHS to consider and decide whether to designate additional classes of
workers to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) [Sec.3626].

Work on developing the technical foundation for these guidelines and regulations is now fully
underway. At this point in our efforts, we would welcome any independent comments or input
you would like to offer regarding these responsibilities. In order to have an accurate and
complete record of comments provided, and to fully consider and react to comments, we would
appreciate your written comments by May 15, 2001. Comments should be directed to:

L. J. Elliott (R-45)

Acting Director, Office of Compensation Analysis and Support
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

4676 Columbia Parkway

Cincinnati, Ohio 45226



Your interest and input in this challenging new program are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,

Larry J. Elliott, MSPH, CIH
Acting Director, Office of Compensation
Analysis and Support
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health



Stakeholders Input Letter Addressees

Richard Miller

Jim Ellenberger, AFL-CIO

Keith Dinger, Health Physics Society (HPS)

Charles Meinholdt, National Council on Radiation protection and Measurement (NCRP)
Joe Fitzgerald, Salient Strategies

Neil Otchin, Veteran’s Administration (VA)

Ashok C. Thadani, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Jeff Klemm, Science Applications International Corporation, (SAIC)
Don Elisburg

Michael Schaeffer, Defense Threat Reduction Agency DTRA

Jeff Hill, Atomic Trades and Labor Council, ORNL

James K. Phillips, Political Education Program, PACE International Union
Scott Schnieder, Laborer’s Health and Safety Fund

John J. Jesky, Hanford Atomic metal Trades Council

Jim Blankenship, Atomic Trades and Labor Council, ORNL

Gary Benjamin, Administrator Fernald Worker’s Settlement Fund
Glenn Bell

Owen Hoffman, SENES, Inc.

Daniel O. Stram, Univ. of Southern California

John J. Fix, Battelle Memorial Institute

Roy E. Shore, New York Univ. Medical Center

Arthur C. Upton

UMDNJ-CRESP

John D. Boice, International Epidemiology Institute

Richard Wilson, Harvard School of Public Health

Sander Greenland, Univ. of California

Dale Hattis, CENTED

Michael Sprinkler, ICWUC Health and Safety Dept.

Jay Lubin, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics

Michael Wright, United Steelworkers of America

Sylvia Keiding

John Dement, Duke Univ

Frank Mirer, United Auto Workers

Mike Flynn, International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers
Darrell R. Fisher, Pacific Northwest Nat’! Laboratory

John E. Till, Risk Assessment Corporation °