Illness and injury surveillance data are shared with workers, occupational physicians, labor unions, DOE management, and other government officials in the form of reports, meetings, and written responses to questions about the health status of DOE workers. Agreement With Department of Health and Human Services. Radiation Effects Research Foundation. The United States and Japan jointly support studies of the health effects of radiation on the Japanese atomic bomb survivors at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Annual funding for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation is provided equally by the Government of Japan, through the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and by the United States Government, through the Department of Energy.
Funding is provided in yen by both countries.
The Department of Energy's support of the Foundation and its mission is reflected in the one-third of a billion dollars contributed over the past 50 years. In 1995, at the request of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation's Scientific Council, an international group of scientists was empaneled to independently assess the Foundation's current and future scientific activities. This Blue Ribbon Panel will issue its final report in June 1996. The Japanese government feels strongly that the recommendations on the future of clinical and genetic studies should take into account the direct benefits of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation on the health of the atomic bomb survivors and their children. Members of this Committee should be aware that the United States budgetary constraints, along with the declining value of the dollar versus the yen over the past decade, have made it difficult for the Department of Energy to continue funding fifty percent of the Foundation's operations.