HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Facility, Lackawanna, New York

HHS Designation of Additional Members of the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees from 

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Facility

Lackawanna, New York 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Facility, Lackawanna, New York Page 2

I. Designation 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, designate the class 

of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to the Special Exposure 

Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q.

____July 14, 2010___ _[Signature on file]___________

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at the Bethlehem 

Steel Corporation facility in Lackawanna, New York from January 1, 1949 to 

December 31, 1952, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work 

days, occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with 

work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of 

employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. 

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the 

Secretary has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

(Board) has recommended, that

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the 

class received; and

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have 

endangered the health of members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations 

to estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, 

the rule states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the 

maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are 

reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient 

accuracy if NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate.

The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on June 16, 

2010.
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IV. Designation Findings

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

• The principal source of internal radiation exposures for members of the 

proposed class at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation was exposure to uranium.

• NIOSH evaluated the feasibility of completing dose reconstructions for all 

Atomic Weapons Employer personnel at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation

facility who were monitored or should have been monitored for exposure to 

uranium during uranium rolling activities at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, 

Lackawanna, New York facility from January 1, 1949 through December 31, 

1952. 

• NIOSH, in its Evaluation Report, found that the available monitoring records, 

process descriptions and source term data available were sufficient to 

complete dose reconstructions for the proposed class of employees. NIOSH, 

however, was unable to obtain any personnel or workplace monitoring data 

for a portion of the covered period at Bethlehem Steel. As an alternative, the 

Evaluation Report utilized monitoring information collected at another 

uranium metal handling facility, Simonds Saw and Steel, during roughly the 

same era as the work that was performed at Bethlehem Steel. The NIOSH 

finding that dose reconstruction was feasible was based on a presumed 

similarity of exposure between rolling operations at Simonds Saw and Steel 

and those at Bethlehem Steel. The use of exposure data from one site as 

representative of exposure at another site where exposure data are not 

available has come to be referred to in the EEOICPA program as the use of 

“surrogate” data.

• Subsequent to the completion of NIOSH’s Evaluation Report, NIOSH and the 

Board began independently considering the use of surrogate data and 

possible ways to evaluate whether a particular use of surrogate data did, in 

fact, provide sufficiently accurate dose reconstructions. As a result, NIOSH 

published an Implementation Guide, OCAS-IG-004, “The Use of Data from 

Other Facilities in Completion of Dose Reconstructions under EEOICPA,” 

which describes criteria that must be met in order for surrogate data use to be 

acceptable. At its May 2010 meeting, the Board adopted its own criteria for 

surrogate data use which are similar, although not identical, to the NIOSH 

criteria in IG-004.

• For the period from January 1, 1949 to December 31, 1950, NIOSH has very 

limited information concerning radiological activities at Bethlehem Steel, and 

has no information about the uranium source term. Specifically, NIOSH has 

no data on how much uranium was handled or how long it was present at the 

Bethlehem Steel facility. In addition, NIOSH has no personnel or workplace 

monitoring data. The Evaluation Report uses airborne radioactivity data from 

another site, Simonds Saw and Steel, as representative of what exposures 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Facility, Lackawanna, New York Page 4

would have been at Bethlehem Steel. However, IG-004 requires that the 

source terms be similar between the surrogate site and the site for which 

doses are being reconstructed in order for the surrogate data use to be 

appropriate. The original NIOSH model for reconstructing exposures at 

Bethlehem Steel depended on presumed frequencies and durations of rolling 

operations. Since this information is not known, the Bethlehem Steel source 

term cannot be compared to the Simonds Saw and Steel source term, thus 

the surrogate data use cannot be considered appropriate. 

• For the period from January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1952, the issue of 

concern is the dust and fume exposure to individuals involved in the activity 

of cutting cobbles (waste pieces of uranium rod generated during rolling 

operations). There are very limited data available concerning cobble cutting

at Bethlehem Steel and no personnel or air sampling data related to uranium 

cobble cutting. There are no data available to NIOSH from possibly similar 

torch cutting activities involving uranium. In order to reconstruct exposures 

due to cobble cutting, the Evaluation Report used a combination of the 

following information: an airborne concentration that was judged to be the 

highest concentration of airborne dust that the atmosphere can sustain for an 

extended period; data collected on the cutting of stainless steel pipe of 5 cm 

diameter and 0.4 cm wall thickness to estimate the time required for cutting a 

uranium cobble; and worker estimates of how often cobbles had to be cut in 

order to estimate exposures from cobble cutting. NIOSH lacks technical 

support for the position that the airborne concentration used in the Evaluation 

Report represents what was present at Bethlehem Steel. Cobble cutting at 

Bethlehem Steel was a fairly infrequent activity, performed by relatively few 

individuals. However, it was performed in the middle of the plant, without any 

barriers or exclusion area. Therefore, NIOSH cannot determine the extent to 

which this activity affected the exposure of other workers in the facility.

• The principal source of external radiation exposure for members of the 

proposed class was exposure to uranium.

• From January 1, 1949 to December 31, 1950, NIOSH does not have 

sufficient information about the uranium source term at Bethlehem Steel. 

Therefore external exposures to uranium cannot be reconstructed during that 

time. 

• From January 1, 1951 to December 31, 1952, NIOSH does have information 

about uranium source term, so a dose model can be developed to reconstruct 

external doses during that time. 

• NIOSH believes it is possible to reconstruct with sufficient accuracy 

occupational medical X-ray dose for the evaluated period.

• Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is 

insufficient information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for 

every type of cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could 

have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any member of the 
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Bethlehem Steel Corporation Facility, Lackawanna, New York Page 5

• class; or (2) estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more 

precisely than a maximum dose estimate.

• Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to reconstruct radiation doses for 

the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal and external 

monitoring data that may become available (and that can be interpreted using 

existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures) for an 

individual claim. Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at the 

Bethlehem Steel Corporation facility during the period from January 1, 1949 

through December 31, 1952, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, 

may be performed using these data as appropriate.

• NIOSH finds that it is feasible to estimate, with sufficient accuracy, 

occupational medical dose for this class of employees using the assumptions

and applicable protocols in the complex-wide Technical Information Bulletin, 

Dose Reconstruction from Occupationally Related Diagnostic X-Ray 

Procedures (ORAUT-OTIB-0006).

• The Board recommended the proposed class for addition to the SEC and the 

NIOSH Director concurred with its recommendation.

 Health Endangerment

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of 

employees covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

(1) Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), the NIOSH Director established that there 

is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the 

health of members of the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), the 

NIOSH Director specified a minimum duration of employment to satisfy this 

health endangerment criterion as “having been employed for a number of 

work days aggregating at least 250 work days within the parameters 

established for this class or in combination with work days within the 

parameters (excluding aggregate work day requirements) established for one 

or more other classes of employees in the Cohort.”

(2) The Board and the NIOSH Director did not identify any evidence from the 

petitioners or from other resources that would establish that the class was 

exposed to radiation during a discrete incident likely to have involved 

exceptionally high-level exposures, such as a nuclear criticality incident, as 

defined under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3) The NIOSH Director concurred with the Board’s finding that the health of the 

class may have been endangered and defined the class according to the 250-

work day requirement specified under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii). 
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V. Effect and Effective Date of Designation

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the 

SEC for review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 

7384q(c)(2)(A), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in 

scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 

U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 days after the date of 

this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise provides.”

VI. Administrative Review of Designation

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report 

may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 

83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class 

of employees covered by this designation, the Secretary would transmit a 

supplementary report to Congress providing the expanded employee class definition 

and the criteria and findings on which the decision was based.