Summary Minutes January 8, 2008 

 NIOSH/CDC Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review

 1

 The Subcommittee for Dose Reconstruction Review

 of the

 Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

 _________________________________________________________________ 

 Summary Minutes of the Eighth Meeting 

 January 8, 2008 

 _________________________________________________________________

The Eighth Meeting of the Subcommittee for Dose Reconstruction Review 

(the Subcommittee) of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

(ABRWH or the Board) was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 8, 2008. 

 The meeting was called to order by Dr. Lewis Wade, the Designated 

Federal Official, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These 

summary minutes, as well as a verbatim transcript certified by a court 

reporter, are available on the internet on the web site of the 

NIOSH/Office of Compensation Analysis and Support (OCAS) located at 

www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas. Those present included the following: 

Subcommittee Members: Mr. Mark Griffon, Chair; Mr. Michael Gibson, Ms. 

Wanda Munn, and Dr. John Poston; with alternates Mr. Brad Clawson and 

Mr. Robert Presley. 

Designated Federal Official: Dr. Lewis Wade, Executive Secretary 

Federal Agency Attendees:

Department of Health and Human Services: Mr. Larry Elliott, Mr. Stuart 

Hinnefeld. 

Contractors:

Sanford Cohen & Associates: Ms. Kathy Behling (via telephone), Mr. 

Doug Farver, Dr. John Mauro. 

Public Attendees: None identified. 
 Summary Minutes January 8, 2008 

 NIOSH/CDC Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review

 2

 SUMMARY MINUTES

Dr. Wade introduced himself as the Designated Federal Official serving 

the Eighth Meeting of the Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review, 

identifying the Chairman, members and alternate members and noting all 

were present at the table. He announced Mr. Stuart Hinnefeld would be 

representing NIOSH, with Ms. Kathy Behling, attending via telephone, 

and Dr. John Mauro present on behalf of SC&A. 

Dr. Wade invited other participants on the telephone to identify 

themselves if they wished, with no responses. 

Mr. Mark Griffon, Subcommittee Chair, opened the meeting by explaining 

that today's meeting will be primarily updates of ongoing work. He 

noted that in between Board meetings the Subcommittee does have 

meetings in which they get into more technical findings and 

resolutions, but this will be a status report. 

Mr. Griffon commented that Mr. Hinnefeld had just provided the 

Subcommittee with matrices in order to select the next round of cases 

for SC&A review, and they will be going over those. 

Outlining the agenda, Mr. Griffon noted the first portion of the 

meeting will be to discuss the fourth, fifth and sixth review matrices 

which are in various stages of the comment resolution process. Those 

sets are comprised of 20 cases. The review process was explained for 

those in the audience not familiar with it, noting the seventh and 

eighth sets of cases have not come back to the Subcommittee at this 

point. He added that at the end of the meeting they will focus on the 

selection of cases for a ninth set for SC&A review. 

Mr. Griffon discussed that he had spoken preliminarily to SC&A about 

rolling the matrices into a database similar to one being incorporated 

by the procedures review workgroup. 

 * * * * *

 FOURTH SET OF CASE REVIEWS 

In updating the fourth set of cases Mr. Griffon noted that they are 

close to resolving all findings. He commented he would address a few 

specific issues to be sure everybody was together on the status. He 

discussed findings including those related to a failure to properly 

account for radiological incidents, a question about some IREP entries, 

triangular distribution related to whole body counting, environmental 

internal exposure values, all of which it was agreed had been resolved 
 Summary Minutes January 8, 2008 

 NIOSH/CDC Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review

 3

to the satisfaction of both NIOSH and SC&A. 

It was agreed a question of whether a person should have had neutron 

monitoring based on areas worked would continue to be addressed and 

resolved in the Y-12 site profile review. Other issues and their 

resolutions were discussed. 

 * * * * *

 FIFTH SET OF CASE REVIEWS

This group of cases was discussed in much the same way, with issues 

enumerated and resolutions, or approaches to resolutions, agreed upon. 

 This included an extensive discussion on reviews of AWE sites. 

 * * * * *

 SIXTH SET OF CASE REVIEWS

Mr. Griffon commented that he was not going to go through the sixth set 

in detail. There had been one meeting to review the initial NIOSH 

responses and those had been discussed at that time. He explained they 

had agreed a lot of the findings had been seen on other case reviews, 

so a number of them were resolved fairly quickly. Those will be 

brought to the next technical Subcommittee meeting. 

 * * * * *

 BUILDING A DOSE RECONSTRUCTION DATABASE 

The building of a dose reconstruction database populated by the six 

sets of reviewed cases was discussed. Mr. Griffon remarked he would 

like to wait for the Procedures Review Workgroup to work out the kinks 

in order to make it a more expeditious process for the Subcommittee to 

use the workgroup's format, but with a separate database. The building 

of the database was discussed at length, with various suggestions 

offered, including the ability to link from one database to another. 

 * * * * *

 BLIND REVIEWS

Mr. Griffon reminded the group that they had agreed to select two cases 

for blind review, and possibly that would come under the last fiscal 

year's work for SC&A. The cases were selected, but Mr. Griffon

reported he has just recently been notified that one of those cases is 
 Summary Minutes January 8, 2008 

 NIOSH/CDC Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review

 4

under appeal. The replacement case has been selected and SC&A should 

shortly have both cases to begin work on those blind reviews. 

 * * * * *

 DOSE RECONSTRUCTION GUIDELINES

Mr. Griffon raised the issue of dose reconstruction guidelines used by 

the dose reconstruction staff. He explained this has been hard to 

define, but his suggestion was that the case file should include those 

guidelines, even retroactively, if possible. Mr. Hinnefeld had looked 

into the matter and reported it would be very much of a problem to 

accomplish retroactive inclusion, and Mr. Griffon had agreed to drop 

that portion of the suggestion. 

Going forward with guidelines being placed in currently active files, 

Mr. Hinnefeld did not have the information on when that could be 

implemented. He indicated he had had some initial discussions with the 

contractor. Mr. Hinnefeld explained the guidelines are often given out 

in staff meetings and are a clarification of something already 

available in a technical document, so it will take more discussion with 

the contractor to determine the extent of what can be done. In looking 

at the cases for today's work, there is no way of knowing whether any 

of those would have the guidance documents in their files. 

 * * *

Mr. Griffon added that once the fourth and fifth matrices are 

completed, he would send around a straw man draft roll-up summary 

report of the first 100 cases reviewed. 

 * * * 

Mr. Larry Elliott joined the discussion to clarify exactly what was 

being expected, explaining that in some cases there may be some formal 

guidance but in others there may not. This will necessitate some 

discussion with the contractor, with some thought being given to 

exactly what can be provided. Many times it may be notes taken by an 

individual who attended the contractor's meeting, a slide show 

presented, or even something from training sessions. 

 * * * * *

 SELECTION OF CASES FOR FUTURE REVIEW

A 9-page list of randomly-selected completed cases, and a 19-page list 
 Summary Minutes January 8, 2008 

 NIOSH/CDC Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

 Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Review

 5

of 400 cases with full internal and external dose estimation types, 

were provided and reviewed in an effort to select a minimum of 60 cases 

for SC&A review. It was agreed that the Subcommittee would begin with 

the 19-page list and consider cases working from back to front because 

cases had been sorted by approval dates, with the oldest date first. 

The Subcommittee had previously discussed they preferred to choose 

those most recently completed cases so they could be reviewing cases 

using the most current approaches. 

Their intent was to select 60 cases, the number to be reviewed by SC&A 

in their current year's work, with the understanding that a number of 

those cases would be dropped off for various reasons and would have to 

be replaced later. By selecting a large number now, it will afford 

SC&A a generous supply of cases to begin their work. 

After a discussion of individual cases from both lists, 60 potential 

cases were identified and would be presented to the full Board for 

their consideration. Mr. Hinnefeld observed that at the end of the 

Board's deliberations NIOSH will have Department of Labor review the 

selected cases for identification of those with a likelihood of 

reopening or which may be in the early stages of a reopening. NIOSH 

will look at the Program Evaluation Review list for any cases that may 

have to be taken off the list until those issues have been resolved. 

They will then go through the remaining cases and add the supplemental 

information about internal dose reconstruction type, external dose 

reconstruction type, neutrons, et cetera. 

The anticipation then is that at the next Subcommittee meeting they can 

review the updated list and fill in those gaps, but this will give SC&A 

the material to start work. 

 * * * * *

 With no further business to come before the Subcommittee, the 

meeting was adjourned at 11:55 a.m. 

 End of Summary Minutes

Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë

I hereby confirm these Summary Minutes are 

accurate, to the best of my knowledge. 

__________________________________________ 

Mark Griffon, Chair Date