Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH)

Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Reviews

April 20, 2022

Summary Proceedings

The meeting of the Subcommittee on Dose Reconstruction Reviews convened via teleconference at 11:00

a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), Dr. David Kotelchuck, Chair, presiding.

Attendees

Members

David Kotelchuck, Chair

Josie Beach, Member

Bradley P. Clawson, Member

James E. Lockey, Member

Loretta R. Valerio, Member

Non-Members

Rashaun Roberts, Designated Federal Official

Nancy Adams, NIOSH Contractor

Bob Barton, SC&A

Kathy Behling, SC&A

Finn Black, SC&A

Grady Calhoun, DCAS

Rose Gogliotti, SC&A

Michael Rafky, HHS

Beth Rolfes, DCAS

Scott Siebert, ORAU Team

Roll Call/Welcome - Dr. Rashaun Roberts, DFO

Dr. Rashaun Roberts opened the meeting at 11:00 a.m., EST. A roll call of all Subcommittee members 

confirmed that a quorum was present. The quorum was maintained throughout the meeting. Subcommittee 

members, federal staff, and contractors declared any conflicts of interest during roll call.

Blind Review Cases from Set 30

Dr. Kotelchuck announced that the Subcommittee would review two blind review cases. Both cases involve 

Hanford, where member Josie Beach has a conflict. Rose Gogliotti, SC&A, led the discussion of the blind 

reviews.
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Ms. Gogliotti presented the results of SC&A’s review of Case B45 in detail. This case involved a secondary 

cancer with an unknown primary cancer. In such a case dose reconstruction must be performed for each 

of the organs where the cancer could have originated. For this reason, both DCAS’s initial work of the case 

and SC&A’s blind review involved multiple dose reconstructions, one for each potential primary location. 

For all potential primary locations, the values from DCAS’s dose reconstructions and SC&A’s blind reviews 

were very close. All dose reconstructions yielded a Probability of Causation (POC) less than 50%.

Subcommittee members were very complimentary to the DCAS and SC&A staffs for the quality of work on 

the case. There was some discussion of why DCAS and SC&A had chosen different plutonium mixtures for 

one type of internal dose. DCAS had chosen one that was consistent with the two types of bioassay 

available for the case, and SC&A chose one that was more claimant favorable, but inconsistent with one of 

the two bioassay methods. After discussion the Subcommittee accepted DCAS’s position that claimant 

favorable approaches are selected only when two alternate approaches are equally technically valid. The 

Subcommittee’s work on this case is complete.

Ms. Gogliotti presented the results of SC&A’s review of Case B47 in detail. For all components of the dose 

reconstructions, the values generated by DCAS and SC&A were close to each other. Both DCAS and SC&A 

arrived at a POC less than 50%. The Subcommittee’s work on this case is complete.

Discussion of Changes in SDRR Selection Criteria Based on SC&A 

Document “Summary Dose Reconstruction Information” 3/18/22 (rev. 

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At its September 2021 meeting the Subcommittee asked SC&A to provide some summary statistics of the 

cases the Subcommittee had reviewed, compared to the entire population of claims that DCAS had 

completed. Due to the Cybersecurity Upgrade Initiative, DCAS could not provide up-to-date information 

about the total population of claims completed. Consequently SC&A used information from 2015 to prepare 

their report, which they presented at the Subcommittee’s January meeting. Subsequently DCAS was able 

to provide some updated information on the total claim population, and SC&A used that data to prepare the 

subject report.

Rose Gogliotti presented information from the report. Based on the report the Subcommittee agreed to 

make the following changes to its case selection criteria:

• Expand the POC target range to 40% - 55% (from 45% - 52%)

• Focus on cases with employment start dates in the 1970s and later

• Focus on cases with shorter employment periods than 20 years

• Focus on cases with female energy employees

• Focus on cases that were completed fairly recently

• Focus on cases from certain specific sites with disproportionately low reviews

Dr. Kotelchuck, Subcommittee Chair, intends to inform the full Board of these changes at the next Board 

meeting.

Next Meeting

The Subcommittee discussed scheduling the next meeting. However, until SC&A receives and reviews the 

next set of dose reconstructions, there is nothing for the Subcommittee to discuss. SC&A estimates they 

will finish the next set of reviews in October. SC&A and DCAS will work together to make sure SC&A has 

the information it needs. They will inform the Chair and the DFO as soon as possible about a suitable month 

for the next meeting.
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Meeting Adjourned

Dr. Kotelchuck adjourned the meeting at 1:19 p.m.