HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

 

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 

Mound Plant 

Miamisburg, Ohio 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

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 employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, 

and its contractors and subcontractors who had at least one tritium bioassay 

sample and worked at the Mound Plant in Miamisburg, Ohio from March 1, 1959 

through March 5, 1980, 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, after receiving the Advisory Board on Radiation and 

Worker Health (Board)‘s recommendation, the Secretary has determined, for the 

class defined in Section II of this report, 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 a 

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

2010. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

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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.

• NIOSH lacks sufficient information, which includes biological monitoring data, 

sufficient air monitoring information, or sufficient process and radiological source 

term information, to allow it to estimate with sufficient accuracy the potential 

internal exposures to radon isotopes associated with radium, actinium, and 

thorium to which the proposed class may have been subjected. 

• NIOSH finds that it is likely feasible to reconstruct external doses, including 

occupational medical doses, for Mound Plant workers with sufficient accuracy. 

• Principal sources of internal radiation for members of the proposed class include 

residual radioactive material from the radium-actinium-thorium process 

conducted in the SW Building. The residual material led to technologicallyenhanced emanation of radon-220, radon-222, and radon-219 into Room SW-19.

• NIOSH previously determined, in its evaluation of petition SEC-00090, that 

Mound workers could have received unmonitored intakes of radium-226, 

actinium-227, and thorium-228 during the period from October 1, 1949 through 

February 28, 1959. In 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services 

(DHHS) designated the following class for inclusion in the SEC:

Employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its 

predecessor agencies, and DOE contractors or subcontractors 

who worked in any areas at the Mound Plant site from October 

1, 1949, through February 28, 1959, for a number of work days 

aggregating at least 250 work days or in combination with work 

days within the parameters established for one or more other 

classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.

• NIOSH found through ongoing research associated with SEC-00090 that residual 

radioactive material from the radium-actinium-thorium process conducted in the 

SW Building led to technologically-enhanced emanation of radon-220, radon222, and radon-219 into Room SW-19.

• NIOSH found no bioassay or workplace monitoring records relevant to these 

radon exposures prior to when air measurements were made in 1979 and 1980. 

NIOSH is unable to put an upper bound on the radon exposures in SW-19 until 

the point at which a ventilation system was installed in early 1980 (prior to March 

5, 1980) to vent SW Building tunnel air. 

• NIOSH finds it is not feasible to determine which of the workers in the R and SW 

buildings may have frequented Room SW-19; therefore NIOSH cannot 

reasonably limit the cohort of workers who could have been exposed to radon in 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

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SW-19 more narrowly than the cohort of all workers in the R and SW buildings. 

Due to the extensive tritium operations occurring in these buildings, it was 

documented policy that everyone who worked in the R and SW buildings had to 

submit periodic urine samples to be analyzed for tritium. While it is possible that 

a worker could have occasionally visited the R and SW buildings without 

submitting a tritium urinalysis sample, it is not plausible that a worker could have 

spent 250 days in these buildings without providing a single tritium urine sample. 

Therefore, tritium urinalysis results will be taken as evidence of potential 

employment in the R and SW buildings. Conversely, absence of such urinalysis 

data will be taken as evidence that individuals did not have the potential to be 

employed in the R and SW buildings for 250 days.

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

monitoring data that may become available for an individual claim (and that can 

be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or 

procedures). Therefore, dose reconstructions for individuals employed at the 

Mound Plant during the period from March 1, 1959 through March 5, 1980, but 

who do not qualify for inclusion in the SEC, may be performed using these data 

as appropriate.

• In its previous evaluation of petition SEC-00090, NIOSH concluded that for the 

period from February 1949 to present, it has access to sufficient information to 

either: (1) estimate the maximum external 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 external 

radiation doses to members of the class more precisely than a maximum dose 

estimate. Consistent with its findings associated with SEC-00090, NIOSH has 

established that it has access to sufficient information to: (1) estimate the 

maximum external 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 external radiation 

doses to members of the class more precisely than a maximum dose estimate.

• Adequate reconstruction of medical dose is likely to be feasible by using 

bounding assumptions in the technical information bulletin, Dose Reconstruction 

from Occupationally Related Diagnostic X-Ray Procedures (ORAUT-OTIB-0006), 

and Mound technical basis documents, collectively referred to as ORAUT-TKBS0016.

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

class for addition to the SEC.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

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 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). 

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.”
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio 

Page 6

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.