MAJORITY LEADER

HARRY REID
(NEVADA
nited States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-7012
February 3, 2010
Paul Ziemer, Ph.D., Chairman

Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health
4676 Columbia Parkway, MS: C-46
Cincinnati, Ohio 45226

Dear Dr. Ziemer:

As someone who helped write the authorizing legislation for the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), I know that this program is not
working for our Cold War veterans as Congress intended. I write to you today to urge you to :
grant those who worked at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) from January 1, 1962 to December 31, \
1992 membership in the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) at your February meeting. NTS i
workers cannot, and will not, receive the “timely, fair and adequate” compensation and medical
benefits they deserve unless they are granted SEC status.

As you know, I helped several NTS workers and survivors submit an SEC petition to the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) three years ago, and I have
supported and monitored the progress of the petition since then. I was happy to see real
progress being made in the last year to address the scientific merits of the NTS SEC petition, and
I commend Sanford, Cohen & Associates, NIOSH, and the NTS Work Group for the work they
have done to research and consider the technical and scientific concerns related to NIOSH’s

original denial of the petition.

At their December 15, 2009 meeting, the NTS Work Group voted unanimously to accept
as their own recommendation NIOSH’s revised position paper recommending that NTS workers
employed during the underground testing years be added to the SEC. As you know, NIOSH’s
revised position paper finds that the internal radiation dose received by employees at the Nevada
Test Site from January 1, 1963 through December 31, 1993 cannot be estimated; therefore, these
workers fully deserve to be granted SEC status.

I appreciate your addressing an issue that is so critical to Nevada’s Cold War Veterans
and their families, and I ask that the Board accept the NTS Work Group’s recommendation,
which is supported by NIOSH and the Board’s independent contractor Sanford Cohen &
Associates (SC&A), as soon as possible. Further delay in voting to add NTS workers employed
during the underground testing years would be a betrayal to these men and women who clearly

deserve this compensation.

While the addition of those who worked at NTS during the underground testing years to
the SEC will be a tremendous step towards ensuring Nevada’s Cold War Veterans are given the


recognition and compensation they deserve, there are several issues I would ask the Board to
address after you have voted on this recommendation. Following your vote, I ask that the Board
begin to deliberate the scientific merits of adding to the SEC certain other workers who do not
fall in to the SEC category for either the atmospheric or underground testing years. Specifically,
I ask that the Board examine the 250-day rule and the addition of cancers such as, but not limited
to, basal cell carcinoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Again, I ask that the Board
address these issues after granting NTS workers employed during the underground testing years

membership in the SEC.

Ten years ago, Congress passed EEOICPA in order to help our Cold War veterans avoid
years of waiting and bureaucratic nightmares so that they may receive the compensation they
deserve. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many NTS workers, some of whom died
while unnecessary bureaucratic delays kept their claims from being approved. I would like to
thank you for all the work you have done for EEOICPA claimants over the years, and I sincerely
hope you will carefully consider and vote to add workers employed at the NTS during the
underground testing years as members of the SEC, as both the science and patriotic duty

demand.

Sincerely,

Yor: REID

United States Senator
Nevada

HR:sb

ce: Henry Anderson, M.D.

ce: Josie Beach

ce: Bradley P. Clawson

ce: R. William Field, Ph.D., M.S.

ce: Michael H. Gibson

ce: Mark Griffon

cc: Richard Lemen, Ph.D.

cc: James E. Lockey, M.D., M.S.

cc: James Malcom Melius, M.D., Dr. P.H.
cc: Wanda I. Munn

ce: John W. Poston, Sr.

ce: Robert W. Presley

cc: David B. Richardson, Ph.D.

cc: Genevieve S. Roessler, Ph.D.

ce: Phillip Schofield

cc: Ted Katz, Designated Federal Officer