Centers for Disease Control

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health

Subcommittee for Procedure Reviews

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Summary Proceedings

The Subcommittee for Procedure Reviews meeting convened via teleconference 

at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Josie Beach, Chair, presiding.

Attendees

Members

Josie Beach, Chair

Loretta R. Valerio 

Paul L. Ziemer

Non-Members, Registered and/or Public Comment Participants: 

Rashaun Roberts, Designated Federal Official

Dave Allen, DCAS

Bob Anigstein, SC&A

Bob Barton, SC&A

Kathy Behling, SC&A

Elizabeth Brackett, ORAU Team

Ron Buchanan, SC&A

Grady Calhoun, DCAS

Rose Gogliotti, SC&A

Darin Hekkala, ORAU Team

Alex Kranbuhl, DCAS

Lori Marion-Moss, DCAS

Robert McGolerick, HHS

Wade Morris, ORAU Team

Steve Ostrow, SC&A

Mutty Sharfi, ORAU Team

Scott Siebert, ORAU Team

Tim Taulbee, DCAS
Roll Call/Welcome - Dr. Rashaun Roberts, DFO

Dr. Rashaun Roberts called to order the Subcommittee for Procedures Review at 

11:00 am on November 3, 2021, via teleconference. A roll call of all 

Subcommittee members confirmed that a quorum was present. The quorum 

was maintained throughout the meeting. Dr. Roberts reviewed subcommittee 

members’ conflicts of interests with respect to covered facilities. There were no 

conflicts with respect to the documents on today’s agenda. Dr. Roberts turned 

the meeting over to Ms. Beach, Subcommittee Chair. Ms. Beach described the 

full agenda and expressed a desire to complete the meeting by 3:15. Kathy 

Behling, SC&A asked the Subcommittee to address the second agenda item 

first. She expected the item to be brief, and then Dr. Anigstein could disengage 

from the meeting.

Reply to NIOSH Response to SC&A Observation 6 on DCAS-PER057 (General Steel Industries)

Dr. Bob Anigstein presented SC&A’s information on this observation. The 

observation arose because DCAS had used an expedient approach in internal 

dose reconstructions that led DCAS’s recalculated doses to differ slightly from 

SC&A’s. DCAS agreed that, for cases with Probability of Causation (POC)

between 45% and 52%, it would not use the expedient approach. This 

observation is essentially the same as SC&A’s Finding 2 on the PER, and it was 

resolved at the Subcommittee’s February 2019 meeting. The Subcommittee 

agreed to close the observation

SCA-TR-2021-PR001, “SC&A’s Review of ORAUT-TKBS-0060, 

Revision 00 (Site Profile for Grand Junction Facilities)

Ron Buchanan, SC&A, presented the results of the review of the Grand Junction 

Site Profile. SC&A’s review resulted in 5 observations related to medical x-ray 

exams, internal dose reconstruction values, and the application of neutron coexposure values. Tim Taulbee, DCAS replied that DCAS was not prepared to 

address these observations today. They will provide responses and possible 

document revisions in the future. These observations remain open.

SCA-TR-2021-PER087, “A Review of NIOSH’s Program Evaluation 

Report DCAS-PER-087, (Clarksville and Medina Modification 

Centers) 

Mr. Buchanan presented the results of SC&A’s review of PER-087. This program 

evaluation report was prepared because Rev 3 to the Clarksville/Medina Site 

Profile introduced changes that could raise some external doses. SC&A’s review 

of the PER resulted in one finding and one observation. The finding related to 

use of surrogate data for Clarksville. The observation related to the description of 

how to use a scaling factor for the 95th percentile co-exposure value. In addition, 

SC&A recommended closing Findings 4 and 6 from their review of the 

Clarksville/Medina Site Profile. The Subcommittee agreed and closed them. The 
Finding and Observation from the review of PER-087 remain open. 

Memo-2021-04-28, “Focused Review of ORAUT-OTIB-0066, 

Revision 01, for Resolution of Issues” 

Dr. Steven Ostrow, SC&A, presented the findings of SC&A’s focused review of 

OTIB-0066, Rev 1. Revision 1 had been prepared to resolve Findings 1 and 3 

from SC&A’s review of Revision 0. Those findings had related to dose calculation 

methods for organically bound tritium and stable metal tritides. The review of 

Revision 1 found that those findings had been appropriately resolved. 

Consequently SC&A recommended closing Findings 1 and 3 from their review of 

Revision 0. The Subcommittee agreed and closed those findings.

SCA-TR-2021-PER065-ST4, “Review of One Advisory BoardSelected Case Reworked for the Evaluation of Anaconda 

Technical Basis Document Revisions”

Kathy Behling, SC&A, presented the results of SC&A’s review of a case from 

Anaconda that had been reworked as part of PER-065. DCAS prepared PER065 because a revision to the Anaconda site profile had changed the methods 

for reconstructing doses. SC&A did not have any findings or observations from 

their review of the PER case. The Subcommittee accepted SC&A’s report.

SCA-TR-2021-PER063-ST4, “Review of the Advisory Board-Selected 

Case Reworked for the Evaluation of the Aluminum Company of 

America (ALCOA-PN) Technical Basis Document Revisions”

Ms. Behling presented the results of SC&A’s review of a case from ALCOA-PN 

that had been reworked as part of PER-063. DCAS prepared PER-063 because 

a revision to the ALCOA-PN site profile had changed the methods for 

reconstructing doses. SC&A did not have any findings or observations from their 

review of the PER case. The Subcommittee concurred with SC&A’s report.

SCA-TR-2021-OTIB0088 rev. 01, “SC&A’s Evaluation of ORAUTOTIB-0088, Revision 01, “External Dose Reconstruction

Mr. Buchanan presented the results of SC&A’s review of OTIB-0088, Rev 1. He 

noted that DCAS had published a second revision to this OTIB in June 2021, but 

SC&A had not been tasked to review that revision. In its review of Rev 1, SC&A 

observed that an incorrect calculation in Rev 0 had been corrected in Rev 1. 

However, an observation from the review of Rev 0 had not been addressed. That 

observation pertained to the inadvisability of using OTIB-0088 as a replacement 

for the planned cancellation of PROC-060. SC&A also descried four 

observations arising from their review of Rev 1. Those observations pertained to:

• Unclear description of covered medical x-rays;

• The description about unmonitored workers’ potential exposures;
• The use of multiple badge records; and

• Unclear instructions on the use of NCRP to ICRP correction factors

Dr. Tim Taulbee, DCAS, provided DCAS’s reaction to the outstanding 

observation from the review of Rev 0. PROC-060 has not yet been cancelled. 

PROC-060 contains information specific to each covered DOE facility. That 

information is best contained in the site profile for each site. DCAS has not yet 

revised all the necessary site profiles to include the PROC-060 information. 

PROC-060 will remain in effect until all the relevant site profiles are revised to 

incorporate the necessary information. The Subcommittee agreed with DCAS’s 

approach and closed that observation.

Dr. Taulbee pointed out that covered medical x-rays are clearly described in 

OTIB-0006, so the Subcommittee agreed to close that observation. 

He noted that the statement about unmonitored workers’ potential exposures did 

not affect the actions of dose reconstructors. Deleting the subject sentence 

would not affect how OTIB-0088 is used. The Subcommittee decided that it was 

not worth revising OTIB-0088 just to change or delete that sentence, but if the 

document were revised for other reasons, they would prefer that the sentence be 

removed. They did close the observation, though.

DCAS will consider an appropriate response to the observation about multiple 

badge records. Finally, Dr. Taulbee stated that the observation about NCRP to 

ICRP correction factors was addressed in OTIB-0088, Rev 2. The Subcommittee 

then tasked SC&A to perform a focused review of Rev 2 to ensure that this final 

finding had been appropriately addressed.

SCA-TR-2021-PR002, Revision 0, SC&A’s Evaluation of ORAUTOTIB-0049, Revision 02, “Estimating Doses for Plutonium Strongly 

Retained in the Lung” 

Rose Gogliotti, SC&A, presented the results of SC&A’s review of OTIB-0049, 

Rev 2. SC&A developed one finding and 8 observations during their review. The 

finding related to an incorrect function in the IDOT-SS dosimetry model that 

accompanies OTIB-0049, Rev 2. DCAS has provided a corrected version of the 

model which functions appropriately. Consequently, the Subcommittee closed 

the finding.

One of the observations noted a typographical error in a value in Attachment A of 

OTIB-0049. The value is correct in IDOT, the associated dosimetry model 

though. DCAS agreed to correct the typo. Since this error didn’t affect the 

outcome of claims the Subcommittee closed the observation. Seven of the

observations were all tied in some fashion to a recommendation to use new 

ICRP guidance for addressing strongly retained plutonium. ICRP issued the new 

guidance late in DCAS’s development of OTIB-0049, Rev 2, so DCAS didn’t 

incorporate it. However, DCAS does intend to issue a revision to OTIB-0049 to

incorporate it at that time. However, the change involves a major change to the 
program, so it will take some time to accomplish. The Subcommittee closed five

of the observations with the expectation they would be addressed by the future 

revision of OTIB-0049. The Subcommittee left Observation 6 in abeyance 

pending revision to OTIB-0060and OTIB-0049 to describe the IDOT dosimetry 

tool. DCAS determined that the suggested guidance fit better in OTIB-60 but 

agreed to place it in both OTIBs. The Subcommittee left Observation 7 in 

progress for future Subcommittee discussion. After discussion, SC&A withdrew 

Observation 8.

Preparation for April 2021 Full ABRWH Meeting

Ms. Behling suggested 6 technical documents for presentation at the next Board 

meeting. The Subcommittee has completed discussion and presented these 

documents to the Board previously. However, the Board did not taken action on 

them. The Subcommittee will present them with the intent of having the Board 

agree to close them.

Next Meeting/Plans

The Subcommittee decided to plan the next meeting and specify any additional 

SC&A tasking via email. 

Meeting Adjourned

The Subcommittee adjourned the meeting at 3:27 pm.