. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL

+ + + + +

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL

SAFETY AND HEALTH

+ + + + +

ADVISORY BOARD ON RADIATION AND

WORKER HEALTH

+ + + + +

76th MEETING

 

+ + + + +

WEDNESDAY

APRIL 20, 2011

+ + + + +

 The meeting convened 

telephonically at 11:00 a.m., Eastern Daylight 

Time, James M. Melius, Chairman, presiding.

PRESENT:

JAMES M. MELIUS, Chairman

HENRY ANDERSON, Member

JOSIE BEACH, Member

R. WILLIAM FIELD, Member

MICHAEL H. GIBSON, Member

RICHARD LEMEN, Member

JAMES E. LOCKEY, Member

WANDA I. MUNN, Member

ROBERT W. PRESLEY, Member

DAVID B. RICHARDSON, Member

GENEVIEVE S. ROESSLER, Member

PAUL L. ZIEMER, Member

TED KATZ, Designated Federal Official
. 

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REGISTERED AND/OR PUBLIC COMMENT PARTICIPANTS:

 

AL-NABULSI, ISAF, DOE

ANDERS, KAROLINE, DOL

BARRIE, TERRIE

BURGOS, ZAIDA, NIOSH

HINNEFELD, STU, DCAS

LIN, JENNY, HHS

MAKHIJANI, ARJUN, SC&A

MAURO, JOHN, SC&A

OSTROW, STEVE, SC&A

RUTHERFORD, LAVON, DCAS

THRASHER, CONNIE 

WADE, LEW, NIOSH Contractor

 
. 

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 T-A-B-L-E O-F C-O-N-T-E-N-T-S 

Roll Call

Mr. Katz, DFO ........................ 4 

Recording Absent Member Votes from February 

Meeting

Mr. Katz, DFO ........................ 8 

NIOSH 10-Year Program Review Update

Dr. Wade, NIOSH ..................... 11

Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Petition Status 

Update

Mr. Rutherford, DCAS ................ 15

Update from Work Groups and Subcommittee 

WG/SC Chairs ........................ 18

Board Correspondence

Dr. Melius, Chair ................... 35

Future Plans/Suggestions for the May 2011 

Board Meeting Agenda

All Members ......................... 36
. 

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1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 

2 11:00 a.m.

3 MR. KATZ: We have Dr. Melius, but 

4 why don't I run down the list. It's easier 

5 than you guys trampling each other to get your 

6 names in.

7 So we have Dr. Melius. Let me go 

8 alphabetically then. Dr. Anderson?

9 MEMBER ANDERSON: Yes, I'm here.

10 MR. KATZ: Great. Ms. Beach?

11 MEMBER BEACH: I am here. Good 

12 morning.

13 MR. KATZ: Mr. Clawson? 

14 (Pause.)

15 Brad? Okay, let me carry on. Dr. 

16 Field?

17 MEMBER FIELD: I'm here.

18 MR. KATZ: Mr. Gibson?

19 MEMBER GIBSON: I'm here, Ted.

20 MR. KATZ: Great. Mr. Griffon?

21 (Pause.)

22 I'll carry on. Dr. Lemen?
. 

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1 (Pause.)

2 Dr. Lockey?

3 MS. THRASHER: Dr. Lockey will be 

4 with you just in a few minutes. He's running 

5 a few minutes late. This is Connie, his 

6 assistant.

7 MR. KATZ: All right, Connie. 

8 Thank you. And Ms. Munn we've heard from. 

9 Dr. Poston?

10 (Pause.)

11 Okay, things are going on with Dr. 

12 Poston I think, too, maybe. But Mr. Presley 

13 we've heard from. Dr. Richardson?

14 MEMBER RICHARDSON: I'm here.

15 MR. KATZ: Great. Dr. Roessler?

16 MEMBER ROESSLER: Here.

17 MR. KATZ: Okay. And Phil I've 

18 heard from. Phil is stuck in Dallas and won't 

19 be on the line.

20 Dr. Ziemer?

21 MEMBER ZIEMER: I'm here.

22 MR. KATZ: Great. And let me just 
. 

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1 go back on the -- Brad, are you with us? Mr. 

2 Clawson? 

3 Okay, I haven't heard from him. I 

4 suspect he'll be with us unless he had travel 

5 troubles as well. And let me check again --

6 Mark, Mr. Griffon?

7 Okay. And Dr. Lemen? I haven't 

8 heard from him, so I would expect him.

9 Okay, Jim, do you want me to carry 

10 on, or --

11 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes, go on with 

12 the next item on the agenda, which is yours.

13 MR. KATZ: Sure. Before I do 

14 that, just let me remind everyone on the line, 

15 let me just do the rest of the roll call 

16 first.

17 NIOSH-ORAU team?

18 MR. HINNEFELD: This is Stu 

19 Hinnefeld from NIOSH.

20 MR. RUTHERFORD: LaVon Rutherford, 

21 NIOSH.

22 MR. KATZ: Okay. Any others from 
. 

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1 the NIOSH-ORAU team?

2 Okay, SC&A?

3 DR. MAURO: John Mauro, SC&A. 

4 Good morning.

5 MR. KATZ: Good morning.

6 DR. OSTROW: Steve Ostrow. Steve 

7 Ostrow. 

8 MR. KATZ: Hi, Steve.

9 DR. OSTROW: Hi. 

10 MR. KATZ: Okay. Federal 

11 officials, HHS or other agencies?

12 MS. LIN: Jenny Lin, HHS.

13 MR. KATZ: Hello, Jenny.

14 DR. WADE: This is Lew Wade with 

15 NIOSH.

16 MR. KATZ: Hi, Lou.

17 MS. ANDERS: From the Department 

18 of Labor, Karoline Anders for Jeff Kotsch 

19 today.

20 MR. KATZ: Karoline. 

21 DR. AL-NABULSI: Isaf Al-Nabulsi, 

22 DOE.
. 

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1 MR. KATZ: Welcome. 

2 And there's no public comment 

3 session, but any members of the public 

4 listening in who want to register their 

5 attendance?

6 MS. BARRIE: This is Terrie Barrie 

7 with ANWAG.

8 MR. KATZ: Welcome, Terrie. 

9 MS. BARRIE: Good morning.

10 MR. KATZ: Very good. Now let me 

11 just remind everyone on the line now to please 

12 mute your phone except when you're addressing 

13 the group. 

14 Use *6 if you don't have a mute 

15 button to mute your phone, and then *6 again 

16 will take you off mute.

17 And I will sort of go right into 

18 the next section, which is recording absentee 

19 Member votes.

20 DR. MAKHIJANI: Ted, before you 

21 start that, this is Arjun. I just got on the 

22 line, SC&A.
. 

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1 MR. KATZ: Great. Welcome, Arjun.

2 DR. MAKHIJANI: Thank you. Thank 

3 you.

4 MR. KATZ: Thank you. 

5 Okay, Board votes. At the last 

6 meeting in Augusta, we had some absences, and 

7 the procedure of the Board is to collect all 

8 votes before completing the action, and we 

9 have done so. So let me run through those 

10 votes as they came in.

11 There's someone on the line who's 

12 not on mute. If you could just mute your 

13 phone, *6, thank you.

14 So we have Dr. Lockey was absent 

15 for a number of the votes, and I'll run down 

16 his votes. All the votes came in by March 

17 18th. And Dr. Lockey's, for those that he had 

18 missed, were a yes on Chapman, making the 

19 final vote 11 in favor, 5 against. A yes on 

20 Dow, making the final vote 15 yes, 1 no. A 

21 yes on Wah Chang, that's 16 or unanimous in 

22 favor. A yes on Grand Junction, that's again 
. 

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1 16 unanimous in favor. A yes on Bliss & 

2 Laughlin, 16 unanimous. A yes on Norton, 

3 that's 15 in favor, unanimous, one recusal. 

4 And yes on Vitro, 16 unanimous again.

5 Mr. Griffon also -- he missed two 

6 votes. He missed Chapman, where he voted no, 

7 and he voted yes for Wah Chang. 

8 And then finally, Mr. Schofield 

9 missed the vote on the last day for Vitro, and 

10 he voted yes. And that concludes the votes 

11 for the February Board meeting.

12 Thank you, Jim.

13 MS. LIN: Ted?

14 MR. KATZ: Yes.

15 MS. LIN: This is Jenny. There 

16 were separate votes taken for Wah Chang? Can 

17 you report those votes as well?

18 MR. KATZ: There were separate 

19 votes taken for Wah Chang.

20 MS. LIN: There were two actions 

21 taken for Wah Chang. 

22 MR. KATZ: Okay, let me --
. 

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1 MEMBER LEMEN: Ted?

2 MR. KATZ: Yes?

3 MEMBER LEMEN: This is Dick. I'm 

4 on.

5 MR. KATZ: Oh, welcome. Welcome, 

6 Dick. 

7 So, Jenny, I don't have that 

8 before me right now --

9 MS. LIN: Okay, great. 

10 MR. KATZ: -- to address that. 

11 Thank you.

12 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Thanks, 

13 Ted.

14 Lew, do you want to give us an 

15 update on the NIOSH 10-Year Program Review?

16 DR. WADE: Sure, Jim. I'll be 

17 brief.

18 You know, we're proceeding 

19 according to the plan that I shared with you 

20 at the February meeting although I'm a little 

21 bit less certain of my ability to meet that 

22 plan, but we're still proceeding according to 
. 

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1 it.

2 If you remember, that plan was to 

3 have before the Board, before its next face4 to-face meeting in May, updated copies of all 

5 five of the Phase 1 reports. They'll be as 

6 updated as they've been by the authors and 

7 approved by the system for release.

8 I'd also like to have before you a 

9 list of all of the recommendations that have 

10 resulted from those five reports. And I would 

11 await, you know, the Board input on the 

12 content of those five reports and the 

13 recommendations.

14 The one issue that I've been --

15 until we have a Board discussion, it was Dr. 

16 Richardson's issue that started with the fact 

17 that the science review did not look at the 

18 science behind Probability of Causation.

19 Before we decide how to move on 

20 that, I would be interested in a discussion 

21 with the Board to get a sense of what the 

22 Board's actions are likely to be on that 
. 

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1 issue.

2 So we're on track. Again, the 

3 meeting is approaching, and I don't have all 

4 the pieces in hand, yet, but we're working to 

5 have them. And then, Jim, we're also prepared 

6 to do anything you would like us to do in May 

7 as the Board begins to delve into more detail 

8 in some of the Phase 1 reports.

9 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay, thanks. 

10 And, Lew, if you're going to stay on the line, 

11 we'll sort of hold that discussion -- one of 

12 our last items is the May meeting agenda, and 

13 we can cover it there because it also depends 

14 somewhat on how much time's available, so.

15 DR. WADE: I'll be with you until 

16 1:00, Jim. Do you have a sense -- I assume 

17 you'll --

18 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: I think we'll be 

19 finished by 1:00.

20 DR. WADE: Okay. Thank you.

21 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Any Board 

22 Members that have questions for Lew?
. 

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1 MEMBER MUNN: Yes. This is Wanda, 

2 I have one.

3 Lew, is the report that we can 

4 access online where you are right now, or is 

5 there more extensive information? Is there 

6 additional information or different 

7 information than what we have on the screen 

8 when we pull that up?

9 DR. WADE: Well, if you pull up 

10 one of the five reports, Wanda, what you have 

11 is the latest released version. The authors 

12 are working on some of the comments that were 

13 received at the website, and it's my hope to 

14 have updated reports to you.

15 When we do update, I'll send an 

16 email to each Board Member letting you know 

17 that there's a later version available. So 

18 what you see is what you've got until we have 

19 more to share with you, and we'll let you know 

20 of that occurrence.

21 MEMBER MUNN: All right. So that 

22 what, about 34-page draft that we see, is the 
. 

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1 bones and meat of what we're going to expect, 

2 right?

3 DR. WADE: No, there are five 

4 reports. There's a --

5 MEMBER MUNN: Yes, this is just 

6 the first of the first one that I'm looking 

7 at. I just wanted to make sure that those had 

8 not been significantly revised and that I had 

9 missed it. All right.

10 DR. WADE: There's a report on 

11 individual dose reconstruction -- all of those 

12 reports you have, there's a report on the 

13 quality of science.

14 MEMBER MUNN: Yes.

15 DR. WADE: You have the latest 

16 version. They are being worked based upon 

17 comments. 

18 MEMBER MUNN: All right. Thank 

19 you.

20 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: I would just add 

21 that, you know, individual Board Members, you 

22 know, can do comments regarding those reports, 
. 

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1 so -- 

2 DR. WADE: We have a number from 

3 some Board Members, and you know, we're 

4 working hard to include the suggestions made 

5 by Board Members.

6 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Any other 

7 Board Members with questions for Lew?

8 Okay. Next, we'll hear from LaVon 

9 Rutherford, the Special Exposure Cohort 

10 Petition status update.

11 MR. RUTHERFORD: All right. Thank 

12 you, Dr. Melius. 

13 We have a pretty light load for 

14 the SEC presentation schedule for the May 

15 Board meeting. We had hoped to get an 83.14 

16 completed from our review of the SEC Class 

17 Definitions in time for the meeting, but we 

18 had to push that back a little. We will be 

19 presenting those 83.14s at the August meeting. 

20 As for the May meeting, we will be 

21 presenting evaluations for Sandia National Lab 

22 and Hanford. The Sandia National Lab is an 
. 

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1 83.13. The petitioner had proposed a Class 

2 for all employees who worked within the 

3 reactor division of Sandia National Lab from 

4 January 1, 1957, through December 31st of 

5 1962.

6 Recognize that if a Class is 

7 recommended, we do not necessarily recommend 

8 the Class proposed by the petitioner. We 

9 adjust the Class based on our feasibility

10 findings. So, just, I know the Board knows 

11 that, but any of the public listening.

12 We anticipate getting this report 

13 to the Advisory Board late next week.

14 Hanford, this is an 83.13 as well. 

15 This petition actually is within the time 

16 period which is under the Hanford Work Group 

17 review now. However, the issue associated 

18 with this petition was not addressed under the 

19 previous petition, nor has the Work Group 

20 really looked at this issue. 

21 The petitioner proposed Class is 

22 all personnel who were internally monitored 
. 

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1 and who worked at the plutonium finishing 

2 plant in the 200 area at the Hanford site from 

3 January 1, 1987, through December 31st, 1989.

4 Again, we anticipate getting this 

5 report to the Advisory Board late next week. 

6 Those are the only new petitions we will be 

7 presenting. 

8 We will be providing the SEC Work 

9 Group and the rest of the Board a revised 

10 petition evaluation for GE Evendale. This is 

11 an 83.13 -- or 83.14, excuse me. We 

12 originally presented our Evaluation Report at 

13 the Advisory Board meeting in February of 

14 2010. 

15 At that time, the Advisory Board 

16 requested that we pursue additional 

17 information to determine whether it would 

18 feasible to limit the Class based on specific 

19 buildings, or if we could identify the 

20 specific work force.

21 Since that time, we have uncovered 

22 enough additional information and 
. 

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1 documentation and data that we felt we should 

2 revise our original evaluation to include this 

3 information. However, our revision does not 

4 change our original conclusion. I want to 

5 point that out.

6 We anticipate having this revision 

7 to the Advisory Board -- or to the Work Group 

8 and Advisory Board late next week as well. 

9 And that's about it for the May meeting.

10 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Questions 

11 for LaVon from Board Members?

12 MEMBER LOCKEY: Hey, Jim. Jim 

13 Lockey, I was able to join you.

14 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Welcome, 

15 Jim. Thanks.

16 Any questions for LaVon?

17 Okay. Next item on our agenda is 

18 the Work Group and Subcommittee update. And 

19 let me just start off by saying that the SEC 

20 Evaluation Work Group will -- currently in the 

21 process of scheduling a meeting to review the 

22 updated General Electric report, so we will -
. 

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1 - Evaluation Report. 

2 So we expect that we'll have that 

3 meeting before our May meeting, and we'll be 

4 able to report back as part of the 

5 presentation discussion on the new Evaluation 

6 Report at the May meeting.

7 Any other Work Group or 

8 Subcommittee Chairs that wish to provide 

9 updates?

10 MEMBER MUNN: This is Wanda. I 

11 can give you a report on Procedures, if you'd 

12 like.

13 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

14 MEMBER MUNN: The Subcommittee on 

15 Procedures met last March 22nd in Cincinnati. 

16 We had, as usual, a very full agenda, 

17 including the first 14 of the two-page 

18 summaries for our archive that SC&A had 

19 provided for us and which we covered in 

20 considerable detail. 

21 Those will be complete with only 

22 minor revisions now. A few grammatical 
. 

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1 changes will be made, and then they'll be 

2 provided to NIOSH for them to arrange a spot 

3 on the web so that we can get those -- that 

4 entire file loaded and available for public 

5 perusal.

6 We were able to close several 

7 items, a couple from OTIB-21, and we had a few 

8 items that -- as always, we have carryover 

9 items that are still being worked on. There -

10 - we expect at least half of those carryover 

11 items to be addressed at our next meeting.

12 We continue to move forward with 

13 issues on our database. As you know, this 

14 most recent change and expansion of our 

15 capability is providing some software 

16 challenges, I think. 

17 But we -- and as a result, we were 

18 not able to use the database in its electronic 

19 form as we have been accustomed to in the past 

20 during that meeting.

21 But we see progress being made, 

22 additional information being incorporated. 
. 

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1 And our primary concern right now is that the 

2 database be able to link back to original 

3 documents, so that anyone who is trying to 

4 attempt the full history of what has 

5 transpired with an issue will be able to move 

6 from one document to the other without total 

7 confusion.

8 We anticipate spending the first 

9 part of our next upcoming meeting with active 

10 training on how to use the new aspects of the 

11 database that should be available to us by 

12 that time.

13 We were unable to schedule a 

14 meeting in the usual period that we would 

15 have. Normally, we like to meet every six 

16 weeks to two months, but because of the press 

17 of other meetings and staff restraints that we 

18 have currently, the next meeting will not 

19 occur until July.

20 So we will have one or two items 

21 that will be transferred from our purview into 

22 other Work Groups. There's a PER that needs 
. 

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1 to go to the Los Alamos Group, and we'll be 

2 doing that in the next week or so.

3 In the interim, we had a 

4 considerable discussion about how to address 

5 the PER database, whether to be separate, or 

6 whether to incorporate it into this one.

7 Currently -- probably a separate 

8 kind of database, since that is a different 

9 type of activity than the kinds of 

10 programmatic issues that we address in our 

11 standard Subcommittee meeting.

12 That is about it for our March 

13 22nd meeting.

14 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Thank 

15 you, Wanda. Any Board Members that have 

16 questions for Wanda?

17 Okay. Any other Board Members 

18 that would like to report on their 

19 Subcommittees or Work Groups?

20 MEMBER ANDERSON: This is Andy. I 

21 would just say the 6001 Committee or Work 

22 Group is going to meet on May 16th, and it 
. 

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1 looks like we've got the -- we will have the 

2 information we need, so we're good to go.

3 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Oh, excellent. 

4 Good. Yes, I understand a couple of meetings 

5 got postponed because of the threatened 

6 shutdown?

7 MEMBER ANDERSON: Yes, exactly. 

8 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Having gone 

9 through that in the past --

10 MEMBER ROESSLER: Jim, this is 

11 Gen. 

12 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes, go ahead, 

13 Gen.

14 MEMBER ROESSLER: An update on 

15 Linde.

16 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

17 MEMBER ROESSLER: We have a Work 

18 Group meeting set for July 7th in Cincinnati 

19 for the morning, 9:00 to 12:30.

20 This will be to begin evaluation 

21 of SEC 154, which is the Linde period November 

22 1st, 1947 through December 31st, 1953. 
. 

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1 We have the Evaluation Report that 

2 came out in November, and I have a note here 

3 from SC&A, and Steve can update me if there 

4 are any changes on this, saying that SC&A is 

5 aiming to produce a report on the ER by the 

6 end of May. And this will leave time for 

7 NIOSH to comment and for the Work Group to 

8 discuss the issues at our meeting in July. 

9 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. 

10 Excellent. Good. Any questions for Gen on 

11 Linde?

12 I'd almost forgotten we had 

13 another petition there, so. 

14 Any other Work Group or 

15 Subcommittee Chairs that wish to report?

16 MEMBER ZIEMER: Dr. Melius --

17 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

18 MEMBER ZIEMER: -- Paul Ziemer 

19 here. I'll just report briefly. It's sort of 

20 a non-report, but General Steel Industries and 

21 really TBD-6000 and the General Steel 

22 Industries petition, we have not yet scheduled 
. 

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1 a Work Group meeting because of lack of work 

2 product.

3 I know that NIOSH, in combination 

4 with all the other priorities as well as the 

5 threatened shutdown of the government, things 

6 may be a little behind schedule. But we have 

7 a promised work product called The Path 

8 Forward, a work product that we're awaiting. 

9 And as soon as that is available 

10 and SC&A has an opportunity to review it, we 

11 will schedule our next Work Group. But we've 

12 been six months waiting for a product, so.

13 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

14 MEMBER ZIEMER: So just for the 

15 record to let you know that we're concerned 

16 about the priorities and ability to get 

17 product available for Work Group actions, and 

18 I think it's not just us, but there's many, 

19 many groups have similar issues because it's a 

20 lot of different sites that require action, 

21 and it's a big effort.

22 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes. Yes, I 
. 

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1 don't know, Stu, if you have any comments on 

2 that, or --

3 MR. HINNEFELD: Well, this is Stu. 

4 I would just comment that we are 

5 reconfiguring priorities internally in order 

6 to try to get somebody -- more time on GSI.

7 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Thanks. 

8 MEMBER BEACH: Jim, this is Josie. 

9 I'll go ahead and report on Brookhaven 

10 National Lab. We're going to share the July 

11 7th work date. We're going to have our 

12 meeting on half the day with Linde.

13 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

14 MEMBER BEACH: So, both of us, 

15 since we only had a half a day scheduled.

16 And Mound, I'm waiting for work 

17 product also. There are three pretty large 

18 reports that I'm waiting for and working with 

19 NIOSH to see when those are going to be out, 

20 so.

21 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

22 MEMBER BEACH: I hope to be able 
. 

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1 to schedule Mound before the August meeting, 

2 but we'll see how that goes.

3 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

4 MEMBER RICHARDSON: Dr. Melius --

5 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes?

6 MEMBER RICHARDSON: -- this is 

7 David Richardson.

8 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay, Dave. 

9 MEMBER RICHARDSON: Mark Griffon 

10 chaired the Dose Subcommittee meeting, but I 

11 think he's not on the line.

12 Mark, are you? 

13 So I'd be happy to give a little 

14 summary of where we stand.

15 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes, that would 

16 be good. Thanks, Dave.

17 MEMBER MUNN: Good. I was hoping 

18 you were going to do that, David.

19 MEMBER RICHARDSON: We met on 

20 Monday, April 18th. And if someone can help 

21 me with the recollection, we proceeded through 

22 -- I believe it was the 7th and 8th set of the 
. 

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1 review of the doses.

2 MEMBER MUNN: That's correct.

3 MEMBER RICHARDSON: And we made 

4 good progress through those. We managed to 

5 resolve a number of issues. And some of them 

6 are still pending further work by either NIOSH 

7 or SC&A.

8 We've scheduled a next meeting, 

9 very quickly, for May 6th, on Friday, and it 

10 will be kind of a fact-finding mission, a walk 

11 through of the ORAU contractor and also of 

12 NIOSH to go through and walk through the 

13 process of how the dose reconstruction process 

14 is operating, and partly to collect 

15 information on -- help some of the Committee 

16 Members, including myself, get a better 

17 understanding of the process and get some 

18 insights into some issues that might impact on 

19 kind of quality assurance or quality control.

20 We had a discussion of the -- kind 

21 of finalizing the report for the first 100 

22 dose records review, and there -- I think the 
. 

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1 field trip kind of overlaps with kind of the 

2 one outstanding issue there, which is to see 

3 whether we can incorporate into that report 

4 some suggestions for not simply documenting 

5 kind of where we've identified problems, but 

6 suggestions about kind of how processes might 

7 be revised. 

8 And we would like to do that by 

9 getting kind of a really contemporary 

10 understanding of what's happened, not how --

11 some of the processes have changed since the 

12 time that the dose reconstructions were done. 

13 Some of these are very old cases.

14 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Right.

15 MEMBER RICHARDSON: So we want to 

16 get kind of an up-to-date understanding, and 

17 then hopefully finalize that report with 

18 suggestions that would be useful today. So. 

19 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Good. Okay. 

20 MEMBER GIBSON: Dr. Melius?

21 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

22 MEMBER GIBSON: This is Mike. 
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1 I've had some email and phone call 

2 correspondence with Weldon Spring folks, 

3 wondering when the next meeting's going to be. 

4 So just for the record, DCAS has 

5 committed to having a meeting May the 9th in 

6 Cincinnati.

7 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

8 MEMBER GIBSON: So they'll have

9 that information. Thanks.

10 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay, great. 

11 And obviously, that will be -- that update on 

12 that is on the draft agenda for our May 

13 meeting in St. Louis, and I expect we'll hear 

14 from the petitioners and some of the claimants 

15 from Weldon Spring at that meeting, so that's 

16 timely. I'm glad you got that worked out, 

17 Mike.

18 MEMBER GIBSON: Okay. Thanks.

19 MEMBER BEACH: And Jim, this is 

20 Josie. I'll go ahead and report that LANL has 

21 a Work Group meeting scheduled for May 2nd in 

22 Cincinnati. 
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1 Our last Work Group meeting was 

2 November 3rd, last year, and those updates 

3 have come in from NIOSH for our Work Group 

4 meeting.

5 And then Pantex, I believe, is 

6 still scheduled for May 3rd, also in 

7 Cincinnati.

8 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. And I can 

9 probably, since Phil's not on the line, I know 

10 that the -- believe that the Idaho INL Work 

11 Group is scheduled for, I believe it's the end 

12 of June? Is that the 21st or 20th?

13 MEMBER BEACH: 21st.

14 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: The 21st, and I 

15 believe the --

16 MEMBER BEACH: Gaseous Diffusion?

17 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

18 MEMBER BEACH: It's July 6th. 

19 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Good. 

20 Thank you, Josie.

21 MEMBER ZIEMER: This is Ziemer. 

22 Could I ask a question here?
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1 Josie, did you say Mound was May 

2 2nd?

3 MEMBER BEACH: No, no, no. LANL 

4 is May 2nd. 

5 MEMBER ZIEMER: Okay. Thank you.

6 MEMBER BEACH: Mound is -- Mound 

7 we're still waiting for --

8 MEMBER ZIEMER: Yes, okay.

9 MEMBER BEACH: -- NIOSH's report.

10 MEMBER ZIEMER: Yes, I didn't 

11 quite -- I had a little break in the reception 

12 here. I didn't quite catch what was May 2nd. 

13 Thanks.

14 MEMBER ANDERSON: Do we have a new 

15 date for BNL, or no?

16 MEMBER BEACH: BNL is July 7th at 

17 this time in the afternoon.

18 MEMBER ANDERSON: Okay. That's 

19 right. Got it.

20 MEMBER BEACH: Although, there is 

21 -- I don't know if -- Ted, there are some 

22 issues with hotels there. I don't know if 
. 

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1 Zaida had talked to you about that or not, so 

2 I was a little leery.

3 MR. KATZ: No, I haven't heard a 

4 thing about a problem with hotels. 

5 MEMBER BEACH: Okay. It was just 

6 -- they were booked up and couldn't give me a 

7 room in July for those two meetings, so.

8 MS. BURGOS: Josie, this is Zaida. 

9 I'm still working with my point of contact at 

10 the hotel.

11 MEMBER BEACH: Oh, okay. 

12 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Good. Any other 

13 Work Group updates?

14 I'll just add one thing because 

15 Mark's not on, is that Stu and I have had some 

16 correspondence about trying to sort of figure 

17 out where the NIOSH schedule is for reports on 

18 Savannah River. 

19 So this correspondence was early 

20 this week, so Stu's going to get back to me 

21 and said that he would follow up. So 

22 hopefully we'll be able to pin down our 
. 

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1 schedule on Savannah River also.

2 DR. MAKHIJANI: Dr. Melius, this 

3 is Arjun. May I give an update since Mark is 

4 not on the line?

5 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes, go ahead.

6 DR. MAKHIJANI: We sent our review 

7 -- SC&A sent our review of the 1965 to `71 

8 thorium dose reconstruction report of NIOSH to 

9 the Work Group, I think about a week or ten 

10 days ago.

11 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

12 DR. MAKHIJANI: And so that has 

13 been done. It's a pretty major item, and we 

14 had promised a revision 1 of our review of the 

15 addendum to the Evaluation Report. 

16 And that has been completed, and 

17 it is now -- I believe at DOE for review or in 

18 typesetting. But it should soon be delivered 

19 to the Work Group, probably in less than two 

20 weeks.

21 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Thank 

22 you, Arjun.
. 

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1 DR. MAKHIJANI: You're welcome.

2 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: And then, I know 

3 Brad isn't on, but Ted, is there a Fernald 

4 Work Group meeting scheduled, or --

5 MR. KATZ: This is Ted. There's 

6 not another Work Group meeting scheduled. We 

7 just had one.

8 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Oh, okay.

9 MR. KATZ: We just had one on 

10 Tuesday, and the Work Group will be reporting 

11 to the Board at this May meeting on Fernald.

12 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Good. I 

13 knew something was happening on Fernald. 

14 We've got a lot of Work Groups, so it's hard 

15 to keep track of them all.

16 Any other Work Group updates? 

17 And then, John Mauro, do you have 

18 any information you wish to share with the 

19 Board regarding your activities or anything 

20 else, updates that might be useful? You're 

21 not required to, so.

22 DR. MAURO: No, I really don't. I 
. 

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1 think that all of the Work Group summaries, it 

2 basically -- we're very much involved in all 

3 of these activities, and trying to keep our 

4 work products -- you know before the Work 

5 Groups as timely as we can. So I really have 

6 nothing new to offer.

7 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Good. 

8 Okay. Thanks. 

9 Next item on our agenda is Board 

10 correspondence, and I don't believe we have 

11 anything under this.

12 Ted, am I missing something? Ted, 

13 are you there?

14 MR. KATZ: I'm sorry. Am I on 

15 now, or am I on mute?

16 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes, you are 

17 now. You must have been on mute.

18 MR. KATZ: Sorry. No, we don't --

19 we had correspondence on -- from [identifying 

20 information redacted] on GSI, but it was sent 

21 to the Board and to the TBD-6000 Work Group, 

22 and Paul responded to it, so I think we're 
. 

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1 clear.

2 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Good. 

3 Last item on our agenda then is the May Board 

4 meeting agenda. 

5 And Ted, I think, circulated a 

6 draft agenda to the Board, either earlier this 

7 week or over the weekend. And I don't know if 

8 there were any comments or questions from 

9 Board Members?

10 MEMBER MUNN: No, not from here.

11 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Anybody 

12 -- I have one suggestion. I've actually 

13 talked to Ted about and emailed to Lew also, 

14 in -- since we already have some discussion on 

15 the 10-Year Review, NIOSH review of the 

16 program on the agenda, one of the reports that 

17 I became actually aware of at our last meeting 

18 and have reviewed since that time is the 

19 quality of science report, and the quality of 

20 science report basically focuses on two areas. 

21 One is the surrogate -- use of 

22 surrogate data, and the second is the coworker 
. 

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1 models used in the program for dose 

2 reconstruction. And the surrogate data, I 

3 think we sort of caught up with the people 

4 doing the review during the time period, 

5 during the time period of the review, so I 

6 don't think it has as many implications. 

7 But the recommendations and 

8 conclusions on the coworker section do have 

9 some implications in terms of the current 

10 practices and so forth.

11 And one thing I thought would be 

12 helpful would be to have a -- if it's possible 

13 to get a presentation to the Board of that, at

14 least that part of the quality of science 

15 report so that we can have discussion. 

16 Remember, from our last meeting, 

17 Jim Neton did a presentation on sort of what 

18 the current status of NIOSH's coworker model 

19 approach was. But at that time, I don't think 

20 Jim -- in fact I know Jim was not aware of 

21 this review. It had just literally been 

22 posted on the website and made available. 
. 

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1 So I thought that might be helpful 

2 to us, and at least, you know, I don't know if 

3 we need to try to resolve anything, but I 

4 think it is something that would be worthy of 

5 discussion. 

6 And there's also some broader 

7 implications about the recommendations on the 

8 science in the program, at least as related to 

9 dose reconstruction that might be useful.

10 So I don't know, Lew, if you've 

11 had time to think about that, or --

12 DR. WADE: I have had time to 

13 think about it, Jim, and I personally think 

14 it's a very good idea. I sent an email to the 

15 principal author, Doug Daniels, asking as to 

16 his availability, and he said he would be back 

17 to me today.

18 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay.

19 DR. WADE: I'm assuming given the 

20 three-day meeting that it's a good possibility 

21 he would be available, but I don't have that 

22 confirmed as of this moment.
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1 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Good. 

2 And I think we have room on the agenda for 

3 this, and since LaVon is holding off until 

4 August to load us down with 83.14 reviews.

5 MEMBER MUNN: Dr. Melius?

6 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

7 MEMBER MUNN: This is Wanda. On 

8 our current agenda, we have that discussion of 

9 coworker models after the 10-Year Program 

10 Evaluation. 

11 Would it be more reasonable for us 

12 to have that order reversed, or do you see the 

13 two so completely removed at this particular 

14 juncture?

15 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: I think they 

16 would be one agenda item. I don't -- 

17 MEMBER MUNN: Yes, well --

18 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: There would be 

19 some other -- I think Lew would be giving us a 

20 presentation and an update on the overall 10-

21 Year Review, and then we would focus on the 

22 co-worker.
. 

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1 MEMBER MUNN: Yes.

2 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: The quality of 

3 science report, specifically.

4 MEMBER MUNN: Right.

5 MR. KATZ: Right. Wanda, I 

6 drafted this and shared it with Jim, but that 

7 was before we had our interactions with Lew 

8 about this for Doug. So absolutely, what Jim 

9 just said.

10 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

11 MEMBER MUNN: All righty.

12 DR. WADE: I will let Ted know as 

13 soon as I hear from Doug, then.

14 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Okay. Excellent.

15 Any other comments or suggestions 

16 regarding the agenda?

17 MR. KATZ: I have a question, Jim.

18 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes.

19 MR. KATZ: This is Ted. We had 

20 talked about, at the Augusta meeting, perhaps 

21 having a presentation to the Board. 

22 Now, the Procedures Work Group is 
. 

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1 working through it, but having a presentation 

2 to the Board on OTIB-70, and I'm just curious, 

3 we probably have the time to work that in, if 

4 that's something we want, even though the 

5 Procedures Work Group is dealing with it. 

6 And I'll just remind everyone, the 

7 Procedures Work Group actually had the Norton 

8 SEC, the period that wasn't fully addressed, 

9 that was referred to the Procedures Work Group 

10 to consider because they're the ones who have 

11 been tackling OTIB-70.

12 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Yes. This is 

13 Jim. I would think it would be worthwhile 

14 having that, keeping that on the agenda.

15 As much in follow-up, we had 

16 considerable discussion of this, at least in 

17 terms of examples and some presentation at the 

18 last meeting, and I think it would be good to 

19 try to bring some closure to that and some 

20 further discussion.

21 MR. KATZ: So, Stu, is it possible 

22 to arrange for a sort of full-blooded 
. 

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1 presentation on OTIB-70 for the full Board?

2 MR. HINNEFELD: Well, I can always 

3 say yes because it will fall to Dr. Neton to 

4 do it.

5 (Laughter.)

6 MR. KATZ: Is he there to defend 

7 himself?

8 MR. HINNEFELD: He introduced 

9 himself. He's not storming in the door yet, 

10 so --

11 MR. KATZ: Okay. Well, keep it 

12 locked, and -- 

13 (Laughter.)

14 Any other questions about agenda? 

15 Any other business for the Board?

16 Okay. Thank you all, and I guess 

17 we'll either see you at the Work Group 

18 meetings or Work Group calls or, if not, in 

19 St. Louis in May.

20 MEMBER MUNN: Very good.

21 CHAIRMAN MELIUS: Thanks.

22 (Whereupon, the above-entitled 
. 

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1 matter went off the record at 11:40 a.m.)