_May-02-01 03:43P C.P.W.R. zoz 962 8499 v.U4

Larry J. Elliott
May 1, 2001
page 2

Our team will be glad to work with you to create valid surrogates of exposure based on the
data in our work history interview files and site history data that we have collected. From
these we should be able to create criteria for compensation that cut across all sites (e.g., based
ona trade and tasks performed in that trade), as well as method for collecting site-specific
history data. We also have developed a sophisticated electronic data management system to
collect both work history and medical tindings on construction workers, and these systems
could be adapted to manage the claims processing for individual workers, including the dose
reconstruction parts which NIOSH is responsible for.

Sincerely,

Kiudt Bayer

Principal investigator, Hanford and SRS
Building Trades Medical Screening Programs

Cc: Paul Seligman, MD

MAY-@2-2881 16:22 202 962 8499 97% P.84


fe May-O2-01 03:42P C.P.W.R. 202

; MAY

2 231

962 8499

DATE: S

alot

mT any “Elliott

BSUBJECT:

FAX NUMBER:

BFROM: Vine ee Ruua

The Center to Protect Workers’ Rights NUMBER OF PAGES: ‘J
L

8484 Georgia Avenue

Suite 1000 {INCLUDING THIS COVER SHEET)

Silver Spring, MD 20910

Telephone: 301-578-8500
Fax: 301-578-8572

SNOTES:

This facsimile and any accompanying documents addressed to the specific person or entity listed above are
intended only for their use. It contains information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure
under applicable law. Ifyou are not an addressee, please note that any unauthorized review, copying, or disclosure

of this document in strictly prohibited. If you have recived this trinsmission in error, please immediately notify

us by phone to arrangc for return of the documents.

MAY-A2-27B0@1 16:21 282 962 8499 97%

x FAX TRANSMISSION ©

P.@i


., #Magi-02-01 03:42P C.P.W.R. 202 962 8499 P.02

PROTECT : ( Pp
RKERS’
=RIGHTS MAY 2. 20H

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Edvard C.sutivan May 1, 2001

President

President of the Building

and Construction rades: .

Deputurent, AFL CIO. Larry J. Elliott

Joseph Maloney Acting Director

Secretary Tecusuree Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Sceretary-Treasuret
of the Building and NIOSH

Construction ‘Trades 4676 Columbia Parkway
Department. AFL-CIO Cincinnati, OH 45226
Laurence Cohen.

Vice Hresident and

Genera! Counsel Dear Larry:

Senior Partner,

‘Sherman, Dunn, Cohen, aot os far . ;

Leifer & Yelig This is in response to your request for input in your letter of April 6.

Rev, J. Cletus Kiley . .

Executive Director 1 should note that these comments are limited to construction trades workers,
Priealy Lifeand Ministry and that as a result these views may or may not apply to other kinds of workers.
Morris Kleiner

Protessoe HIN ig, We have so far enrolled over 4000 workers in our projects at Hanford, Oak

Crivenity of Mivnesou Ridge and Savannah River. The bulk of these workers were employed on and
Robert J. Pleasure off by sub contractors, the DOE sites have not collected work history records

Executive Director for most construction workers. Therefore, thesc records must be reconstructed
The Center to Protect ae +
Workers* Righis from limited records, worker recall, and recall of co-workers. This severcly

limits any attempts at quantitative dose reconstruction -- especially for non-
radiation hazards. In-depth work history interviews with the workers we have
enrolled indicate that the kind of data you would need to perform individual
dose reconstructions are typically missing on these workers. Frequently
workers have not been given clearance to go the sites and were not logged in at
all when entering the sites. This occurred especially during repair work, when
some of the most severe exposures could have taken place. Workers may have
been provided with radiation badges at some time, but not necessarily all the
time, Workers state that badges were reused/recycled, and that badge numbers
were used over and over again. Workers were also told to work without their
badges at times. We will ask for statements from workers to this effect and will
forward these to you. :

Workers also tell us that the information contained in the radiation logs is unreliable. This
agrees with the findings from your review of radiation monitoring at Amchitka, in which you
found that workers were unmonitored most of the time, and that even when workers were
monitored, doses were missed or unrecorded.’

"Letter to Dr. Paul Seligman dated May 6, 1998. from Larry J. Lilliott. 4

Suite 1000 + 8484 Georgia Avenuc « Silver Spring « MD = 20910 « 301-578-8500 = Fax: 301-578-8572 - www.cpwr.comi
be anal

MAY-@2-2001 16:21 202 962 8499 97% P.@2


Maj:-O2-01 03:42P C.P.W.R. 202 962 8499
ce

Larry J. Elliott
May J, 2001

page 2

For these reasons, we believe that individual dose reconstruction will not be possible for the
vast majority of construction workers. Their only recourse will be through special exposure
cohorts using the available exposure information. Entry into the Special Exposure Cohort
would rely on qualitative criteria using surrogates of exposure as a proxy for dose
reconstruction.

Surrogates of exposure can be created, based on the trade in which a worker belonged, the
duration of work at the site, the types of tasks the worker did, the buildings or area in which
the worker was engaged, materials handled, and any characteristics unique to each DOE site,
such as special exposure situations/events/incidents which involved the worker. Additional
information can be used as well, such as if the worker had a special physical cxam, x-rays,
urine tests, scrub down, etc.

T think it is important that as you go about your task to consider that not all workers are alike.
Construction workers are very different from most other workers, in part because of the
complexity of trades and tasks that they perform. And we have found that the traditional
occupational health/industrial hygiene model works poorly when applied to workers in the
construction trades because of their intermittent employment and episodic exposures that
frequently are short term, but very high in dose. At the DOF facilities, the greatest risks seem
to have been during work involving emergency response, repair, maintenance, renovation and
demolition, which are mostly performed by construction trades workers employed by sub

contractors. Frequently, these are also the tasks with the least planning and preparation, and
monitoring.

Let me also raise an issue about the need for construction-specific expertise in general.
NIOSH is responsible for dose reconstruction, managing the Advisory Board on Radiation
and Worker Health and proposing members for the medical panels. Your staff will determine
whether a worker has met the required exposure criteria for a covered disease. The Board
will determine the criteria under which diseases are to be covered, including extension of the
Special Exposure Cohort coverage, and also whether diseases other than the ones that are
currently included should be covered. The Panels will consider whether an individual worker
has a covered disease In many cases, construction workers will need to be considered
differently than other workers because of the paucity of-exposure data on them, and because
of their episodic employment and intermittent exposures. For this reason, I urge you to be
certain that in all these tasks there is sufficient expertise on the nature of occupational safety
and health of construction workers—on your staff, on the membership of the Advisory Board,
and on the Medical Panels.

MAY-@2-2081 16:22 202 962 8499 37%