NEAL R. GROSS

COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS

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US Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control

National Institute for Occupational Safety and 

Health

Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health

127th Meeting

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

The meeting convened via teleconference at 11:00 

a.m. Eastern Time, Ted Katz, Designated Federal

Official, presiding.
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Present: 

Henry Anderson, Member

Josie Beach, Member

Bradley P. Clawson, Member

David Kotelchuck, Member

James E. Lockey, Member

David B. Richardson, Member

Genevieve S. Roessler, Member

Phillip Schofield, Member

Loretta R. Valerio, Member

Paul L. Ziemer, Member

Ted Katz, Designated Federal Official

Registered and/or Public Comment Participants: 

Adams, Nancy, NIOSH Contractor

Barrie, Terrie

Barton, Bob, SC&A

Buchanan, Ron, SC&A

Gogliotti, Rose, SC&A

Hinnefeld, Stu, DCAS

Kotsch, Jeff, DOL

Lewis, Greg, DOE

Lewis, Mark, ATL

Neton, Jim, DCAS

Rafky, Mike, HHS

Taulbee, Tim, DCAS
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Contents

US Department of Health and Human Services 

Centers for Disease Control National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board on 

Radiation and Worker Health 127th Meeting 

Wednesday, February 27, 2019 1

Roll Call/Welcome 4

Recording December 2018 Meeting Absentee 

Votes 4

Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Petition Status 

Update 6

Updates from Work Groups and 

Subcommittees (as necessary) 6

Plans for the April 2019 Board Meeting 8

Board Correspondence 11

Adjourn 12
4 

Proceedings

(11:00 a.m.) 

Roll Call/Welcome

Mr. Katz: So welcome everyone. This is the Advisory 

Board on Radiation and Worker Health. A few times 

a year we have a teleconference to plan for the next 

in-person Board meeting which will be happening in 

April.

Let's get started first with roll call, and I won't be 

addressing conflict of interest because there are no 

items on the agenda that require that or that bring 

that into play. So I'm just going to run down the list 

alphabetically. I can answer for the people that I 

know are on, but otherwise, I will wait for your 

answer.

(Roll Call.)

Mr. Katz: Okay, on to the agenda. 

Recording December 2018 Meeting Absentee Votes

Mr. Katz: So, in December's meeting, we had a vote 

and recommended the addition of a Class at Y-12. 

We had a one missing member, Dr. Ziemer, Paul, and 

he has since, earlier in January, abstained, so that 

completed the vote, with one recused and one 

abstention, and it was a unanimous vote.

Since we didn't have the letter at the Board Meeting, 

let me read it into the record. So it's: 

Dear Mr. Secretary: 

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

has evaluated SEC Petition 00251 concerning 

workers at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 

under the statutory requirements established by the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000 and incorporated 

into 42 CFR Sec. 83.13. 
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The Board respectfully recommends that SEC status 

be accorded to: 

All employees of the Department of Energy, its 

predecessor agencies, and their contractors and 

subcontractors who worked at the Y-12 Plant in Oak 

Ridge, Tennessee, during the period January 1, 1958, 

through December 31, 1976, 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.

This recommendation is based on the following 

factors: 

Individuals working at Y-12 during the time period in 

question worked on nuclear weapons production and 

related operations.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and 

Health evaluation of available exposure data, which 

includes biological monitoring, air monitoring 

information, or process monitoring information, 

concluded that NIOSH lacked adequate information, 

to allow it to estimate with sufficient accuracy the 

potential internal exposures to thorium, including 

associated progeny, or plutonium-241 to which the 

proposed class of employees may have been 

exposed. The Board concurs with this conclusion.

NIOSH determined that health may have been 

endangered for the employees exposed to radiation 

at the Y-12 during the time period in question. The 

Board also concurs with this determination. 

Based on these considerations and the discussions 

held at the December 12-13, 2018, Board meeting in 

Redondo Beach, California, the Board recommends 

that this class be added to the SEC. 

Enclosed is the documentation from the Board 

meetings where this SEC class was discussed. The 
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documentation includes copies of the petition, the 

NIOSH review thereof, and related materials. If any 

Enclosure of these items are unavailable at this time, 

they will follow shortly. 

Sincerely, and Dr. Anderson was kind enough to sign 

for the Board as the Chair of the SEC Issues Work 

Group.

So, that was sent up to the Secretary, and I'm also 

happy to report that yesterday the Secretary signed 

off on the designation to add this Class to the SEC. 

And I know Y-12, folks at Y-12, were very interested 

in this process. So let me remind them if they are 

covering this that Congress has 30 days after the 

Secretary sends a letter to Congress notifying them 

of the intent to add a Class. Congress can act on that. 

They never have, but those 30 days have to pass 

before the Department of Labor can actually 

implement the addition of the Class. So there you 

have it for Y-12.

All right then. Next we have LaVon Rutherford to give 

us the SEC petition status update.

Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Petition Status 

Update

Member Rutherford: Okay, thanks Ted. This is going 

to be even shorter than normal. We plan to present 

one new SEC evaluation. We will be presenting the 

remaining years on SEC-188 from Sandia National 

Labs. We'll address 1997 to May of 2011. That's the 

only new report scheduled for this meeting. That's all 

I have. Questions?

Mr. Katz: Okay. It looks like no questions. Thank you, 

LaVon. And now we have for any Work Groups or 

Subcommittees that want to update the group on 

their activities or upcoming activities, now is the 

time.

Updates from Work Groups and Subcommittees (as 
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necessary)

Member Beach: Hey, Ted, this is Josie. I'll just give a 

really brief update for the Subcommittee for 

Procedures. We had a meeting on February 13th, and 

I haven't had time to put together notes for it, so I'll 

give a more thorough report at the next meeting.

Mr. Katz: Sounds great. Thanks, Josie. That was a 

very productive meeting. We got a lot of procedures 

under the bridge with that discussion.

Member Beach: Yes, we sure did. And I looked at it 

this morning and thought I'd put something together 

quickly, and I thought, no, it deserves more attention 

than that.

Mr. Katz: Sounds good. Other Work Groups?

Member Kotelchuck: Ted, I think we're ready finally 

to have a Dose Reconstruction Reviews 

Subcommittee meeting. We have a number of blinds 

that have already been looked at in Set 25, so I 

expect to be calling you and then contacting 

members of the Subcommittee to have a meeting. I 

don't think we're going to be able to have the 

meeting before our Board meeting.

Mr. Katz: We won't. We definitely won't. That's 

understandable, that's just --

Member Kotelchuck: Right. I just want to alert people 

that we will be having a meeting sometime.

Mr. Katz: Dave, did you hear from Grady about 

readiness for the set of dose reconstruction reviews 

to respond to SC&A's? Have you heard that already?

Member Kotelchuck: No, I haven't. I've been out of 

town the last couple of days if it was sent in the last 

couple of days.

Mr. Katz: Okay, no. I haven't seen that. I thought 

you were awaiting that, but I'll check with Grady on 

that to see where we are. Okay, other Work Groups?
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Member Clawson: Ted, can you hear me okay?

Mr. Katz: I hear you perfectly, Brad, yes.

Member Clawson: Okay. I want to give an update on 

Hanford. We're working on a data capture. I just 

reviewed what Chuck Nelson was looking at. SC&A 

has put out a little bit of help there, which we 

appreciate. We're working on that.

I'm still waiting for the coworker model to come. It 

should be coming any time for Savannah River. 

That's about on my two sites where we're at.

Mr. Katz: Thanks, Brad. Others? Okay, I'm not 

hearing anyone. Was somebody just speaking? No. 

And I just note a discussion caught before, Superior 

Steel SEC petition we discussed at the December 

meeting. That comes in to the TBD-6000 Work 

Group, and that will get addressed by that Work 

Group when there's material ready for the Work 

Group to meet. Right now, SC&A is reviewing the SEC 

petition evaluation by NIOSH.

Plans for the April 2019 Board Meeting

Okay, then. So then plans for April 2019 Board 

Meeting. I sent all of you, my Board Members that 

have -- I've sent you sort of an update on Work 

Groups that have work related to either, possibly the 

April meeting or the August meeting so you could see 

where we are and help you figure out when we should 

be holding Work Group meetings for that.

We will need to have some Work Group meetings 

before the April meeting, and let me run through 

what we expect there with regard to Work Group 

meetings. So we have Sandia as LaVon noted earlier 

in this meeting. This would have been for SEC 

petition consideration by NIOSH.

And I believe we are expecting that presentation 

pretty close, or that material for the review pretty 

close to the meeting. So we probably won't have time 

to look at meeting before the Board Meeting, and 
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we'll be hearing it first at the Board Meeting in April.

I should note, by the way, the Board Meeting in April 

is one day, one full day, April 17th, and it's in 

Pittsburgh.

So the next item of note is Santa Susana Area IV. 

SC&A recently concluded their review in response to 

the latest work we got from NIOSH at the December 

Board Meeting, in advance of the December Board 

Meeting. So we need to schedule a Work Group 

meeting for that at some point later in March or early 

April at the latest we'll be doing that.

Also then we have Idaho National Lab, we have a 

couple items recently delivered by SC&A related to 

the Class that's been recommended by NIOSH, 83.14 

for the period from '63 to '70, and also related to the 

Class that's already been added. These are the V&V, 

or the Validation and Verification reports from SC&A. 

So those will be helpful and we should be having an 

INL work group meeting sometime in March.

I think the reports from SC&A are fairly 

straightforward on those so that should be practical.

And then the fourth SEC could be discussed at April 

Board Meeting is Superior Steel. And that's really 

going to be an update because SC&A as I've noted is 

in the middle of doing their evaluation for that, but it 

will be a chance for Megan at NIOSH to give a sort of 

briefer recap of the NIOSH Evaluation Report to the 

people there in Pittsburgh since we'll be there.

And there will be an opportunity for then SC&A to 

give us an update on how their work is going. And 

then, obviously, we'll be able to hear from the public 

on that.

Member Ziemer: Question, Ted.

Mr. Katz: Yes, Paul.

Member Ziemer: Yes, so it's not likely that we'll have 

material for the Work Group to review prior to the 
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April meeting, is that what's my understanding?

Mr. Katz: Yes, that's absolutely right, Paul. SC&A is 

just in the middle of it now.

Member Ziemer: So the only thing that will happen is 

for NIOSH to report on their -- meeting in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Katz: Yes, NIOSH will report on their evaluation, 

just give a briefer report than they gave in December 

to the people that are local there. And also SC&A will 

give us an update on how their work is going and 

what they're up to.

Member Schofield: This is Phil. I have got one quick 

question. Do you know if Bob Barton was going to 

release the stuff on Santa Susana, and there's going 

to be some other stuff on INL posted tomorrow. Has 

that already been posted on the A: drive?

Mr. Katz: Yes. The INL materials are released. They 

haven't been PA cleared yet, Privacy Act cleared. So 

they're not posted but they're available to you. 

They've been sent to you.

Member Schofield: Okay, thanks.

Mr. Katz: And then for Santa Susana, we don't have 

new material at this point. That's still on the way.

Member Schofield: Okay.

Mr. Katz: So we will not be expecting to take up De 

Soto Avenue at the April meeting, only Area IV. And 

just to remind all of you, that's just a two-year 

period, '91 to '93, Area IV.

Okay, so that covers all you're expecting to address 

in April in Pittsburgh. Are there any other matters 

anyone wants to raise?

Member Beach: Ted, this is Josie. Can you give us an 

update on the contract for the --

Mr. Katz: Absolutely, yes, for SC&A. So the contract 

is almost done and SC&A is operating under an 
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extension, a one-month extension. So they're sort of 

in the same situation they were in before. They can 

do new work within the month of March, a one month 

extension, but they don't have a contract for a full 

year yet.

So that should happen sometime in March. I couldn't 

tell you when. But I'll just rely upon folks in the 

Grants Office, and CDC Atlanta will get this done.

Member Ziemer: What will be the contract times for 

the new contract?

Mr. Katz: So it's likely it will start sometime in March, 

and it's a 12-month and 5-year, no, it's a 1+4 

contract.

Member Ziemer: Okay, got you. Okay, that's what I 

was asking. 1+4.

Mr. Katz: 1+4, just like it's always been. Any other 

questions? All right then.

Well, thank you all for attending, and, yes?

Board Correspondence 

Member Ziemer: Ted, before you go, we have Board 

correspondence on the Agenda. I just wanted to call 

attention to the fact that we did get a letter from 

Terrie Barrie, and I think all we all saw Stu's 

response. I don't think there's anything new on that. 

But since you had this on the Agenda, I thought it 

would be okay to call attention to that.

Mr. Katz: All right. Thank you, Paul. You're talking 

about the correspondence between --

Member Ziemer: The Grand Jury sealed documents 

that NIOSH is trying to obtain.

Mr. Katz: Right, for Rocky Flats. Okay. Thank you, 

Paul. And if there are no other matters, I think we 

can adjourn.
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Adjourn

(Whereupon, the foregoing matter went off the

record at 11:20 a.m.)