HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls, New York

HHS Determination Concerning a Petition to Add Members to the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Determination Concerning a Petition for Employees from 

Titanium Alloys Manufacturing

Niagara Falls, New York
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls, New York

I. Determination 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), have determined 

that the employees defined in Section II of this report do not meet the statutory criteria 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.

August 23, 2012 [Signature on File]

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All employees who worked in any area or building at Titanium Alloys Manufacturing 

from January 1, 1955, through December 31, 1956.

III. Decision Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, to designate a class for addition to the SEC, the Secretary 

must determine, upon recommendation of the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker 

Health (Board), 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.

In a letter received by the Secretary on August 1, 2012, the Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 

7384q, agreed with the following NIOSH findings, effectively advising the Secretary that 

radiation dose can be reconstructed with sufficient accuracy for certain Titanium Alloys 

Manufacturing (TAM) employees in accordance with provisions of EEOICPA and the SEC 

final rule.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls, New York

IV. Determination 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.

• The principal source of internal radiation doses for members of the evaluated class was 

inhalation and ingestion of uranium and uranium progeny contained in dusts and fumes 

associated with the furnace operations, and the principal source of external radiation 

doses was from exposure to beta and gamma radiation emanating from uranium-bearing 

materials. 

• NIOSH has determined that uranium internal exposures during the operational period 

can be bounded using air concentration data measured during TAM’s operational period 

from January 1, 1955, through December 31, 1956. NIOSH may choose to employ a 

more refined approach when reconstructing individual doses based on information 

associated with individual claims. NIOSH will use appropriate dose reconstruction 

methods, including best-estimate approaches that employ new details of site operations, 

if discovered, to complete individual dose reconstructions.

• NIOSH determined that although no external monitoring data are available for the TAM 

site, Table 6-1 of Battelle-TBD-6000, can be used to bound the photon dose during the 

operational period from January 1, 1955, through December 31, 1956. 

• Although no specific information regarding occupational medical dose has been 

identified for TAM, the dose associated with medical X-ray exams, if required as a 

condition of employment, can be bounded by using the assumptions in the complex-wide 

Technical Information Bulletin, Dose Reconstruction from Occupationally Related 

Diagnostic X-Ray Procedures (ORAUT-OTIB-0006). NIOSH believes this methodology 

supports its ability to bound the occupational medical X-ray doses for the TAM.

• NIOSH concludes that by using source term quantities and exposure rate modeling from 

Battelle-TBD-6000, external dose reconstruction for personnel working during the 

operational period at TAM is feasible. Based on its assessment of these doses, NIOSH 

concludes that these methods provide reasonable approaches to conservatively bound 

external doses for all members of the class under evaluation. NIOSH may choose to 

employ a more refined approach when reconstructing individual doses based on 

information obtained during the evaluation of individual claims. 

• NIOSH determined that it has access to sufficient site-specific information to either (1) 

estimate the maximum internal and 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 evaluated class; or (2) estimate the internal and 

external radiation doses to members of the evaluated class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate. 

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH findings.
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Determination:

Titanium Alloys Manufacturing, Niagara Falls, New York

Health Endangerment

Because the Secretary established that it is feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the 

radiation doses encountered by all employees who worked at TAM, from January 1, 1955, 

through December 31, 1956, a determination of health endangerment is not required.

V. Effect of the Determination

Members of the class of employees covered by this determination and their survivors 

continue to be eligible to submit claims for compensation under EEOICPA. As required for 

cancer claims covering other DOE and Atomic Weapons Employer employees (or Atomic 

Weapons Employees) not included in the SEC, qualified cancer claims under Part B of 

EEOICPA for members of this class will be adjudicated by the Department of Labor, in part 

on the basis of radiation dose reconstructions which will be conducted by NIOSH.

VI. Administrative Review of Determination 

The determination 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 designate the class of employees covered by this determination, in part or in 

whole, as an addition to the SEC, the Secretary would transmit a new report to Congress 

providing the designation and the criteria and findings on which the decision was based.