HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa [SEC 00245]

 

U.S. Department of Health and Human 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 

Ames Laboratory

 

Ames, Iowa
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa [SEC 00245] 

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I. Designation 

I, Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), 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. 

February 1, 2018 [Signature on File] 

Date Alex M. Azar II

II. Employee Class Definition

 All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their contractors 

or subcontractors who worked in any area of the Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, during 

the period from January 1, 1971, through December 31, 1989, 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 included 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.

NIOSH determined that there is insufficient information to estimate the radiation dose of 

individual members of the class with sufficient accuracy under the two abovementioned situations. 

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

an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Acting Secretary on January 3, 2018. 
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Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa [SEC 00245] 

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IV. Designation Findings

Infeasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary designates the class of employees covered by this report based upon the findings 

summarized below

• NIOSH determined that members of the evaluated class may have received internal 

radiation exposure from uranium and thorium and their decay products, in addition to 

fission and activation products, tritium, and other radionuclides from research activities.

• NIOSH has concluded, based on its assessment of the available employee monitoring 

data that there are insufficient dosimetry or air monitoring data available to estimate 

intakes from site research and developmental work with various radionuclides, and from 

remediation and decontamination work in various site buildings and grounds, for the 

proposed SEC class time period. 

• Therefore, NIOSH lacks sufficient information to allow it to estimate the potential 

internal exposures with sufficient accuracy for the proposed class of workers. 

• NIOSH determined that members of the evaluated class may have received external 

exposure to uranium and thorium and their decay products. In addition, workers at the 

Ames Laboratory Research Reactor had the potential for external gamma and neutron 

exposure. 

• This NIOSH SEC evaluation responds to a petition based on the NIOSH determination 

that internal radiation exposures could not be reconstructed for a dose reconstruction 

claim referred to NIOSH by the Department of Labor. Therefore, the finding that it is not 

feasible to estimate internal radiation dose with sufficient accuracy is sufficient to support 

the designation of the evaluated class of Ames workers to the SEC. While the SEC 

Petition Evaluation Report does not further evaluate whether or not it is feasible to 

estimate external radiation doses, NIOSH intends to reconstruct external doses for those 

claims that do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC using methods that are currently 

available in the Ames site profile.

• Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH has concluded 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 class; or (2) estimate the radiation doses more 

precisely than a maximum dose estimate for the any member of the class at Ames 

Laboratory for the time period from January 1, 1971, through December 31, 1989. 

• Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct internal radiation 

doses for the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal monitoring data that may 

become available for an individual claim (and that can be interpreted using existing 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa [SEC 00245] 

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NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures). Therefore, dose reconstructions for 

individuals employed at Ames Laboratory for the time period from January 1, 1971, 

through December 31, 1989, but who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be 

completed using these data as appropriate. 

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH evaluation and recommended the proposed class 

for addition to the SEC. 

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), NIOSH 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), NIOSH 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 

established for one or more other classes of employees in the Cohort.” 

(2) NIOSH 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 Board concurred with NIOSH’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).

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 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa [SEC 00245] 

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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.