HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Texas City Chemicals, Inc., Texas City, Texas

 

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 

Texas City Chemicals, Inc.

Texas City, Texas
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Texas City Chemicals, Inc., Texas City, Texas

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.

___January 6, 2011____ _[Signature on file]_____________

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All Atomic Weapons Employer employees who worked at Texas City 

Chemicals, Inc., from October 5, 1953, through September 30, 1955, 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.

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 December 

10, 2010. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Texas City Chemicals, Inc., Texas City, Texas

Page 3

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.

• NIOSH lacks sufficient information, which includes specific biological monitoring 

data, sufficient air monitoring information, and sufficient process and radiological 

source information, which would allow it to estimate the potential internal 

exposure to radon for workers at Texas City Chemicals, Inc. (TCC). NIOSH has 

determined that it is possible to bound internal (other than radon) and external 

radiation exposures for these TCC workers from October 5, 1953, through 

September 30, 1955, the entire covered period. 

• NIOSH has documented that it cannot complete dose reconstructions with 

sufficient accuracy for the employees who worked at TCC during the time period 

from October 5, 1953, through September 30, 1955. The basis of this finding 

demonstrates that NIOSH does not have access to sufficient information to either

estimate the maximum radiation dose incurred by any member of the class or 

estimate such radiation doses more precisely than a maximum dose estimate for 

that period.

• No available records were found by NIOSH to determine which workers may 

have been required by TCC to have X-ray examinations. An annual chest X-ray 

examination is therefore presumed to have been administered to all workers 

during the AEC covered period of 1953 through 1955. 

• 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 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 completely reconstruct radiation 

doses for employees who worked at TCC during the time period from October 5, 

1953, through September 30, 1955, NIOSH intends to use any reliable internal 

and external monitoring data that may be available for an individual claim (and 

that can be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or 

procedures) to support a partial dose reconstruction for non-presumptive cancers 

and/or cases that have less than 250 work days of employment.

• 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).
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Texas City Chemicals, Inc., Texas City, Texas

Page 4

• 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 (excluding 

aggregate work day requirements) 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). 

IV. 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.”

V. 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.