Subcommittee on Procedures Review (SPR), Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Meeting

In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announces the following meeting for the aforementioned subcommittee:

DATES:

11:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., EST, February 24, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

Audio Conference Call via FTS Conferencing.

Status: Open to the public, but without a public comment period. The public is welcome to submit written comments in advance of the meeting, to the contact person below. Written comments received in advance of the meeting will be included in the official record of the meeting. The public is also welcome to listen to the meeting by joining the teleconference at the USA toll-free, dial-in number at 1-866-659-0537 and the pass code is 9933701.

Background: The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH or the Advisory Board) was established under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to advise the President on a variety of policy and technical functions required to implement and effectively manage the new compensation program. Key functions of the Advisory Board include providing advice on the development of probability of causation guidelines that have been promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a final rule; advice on methods of dose reconstruction, which have also been promulgated by HHS as a final rule; advice on the scientific validity and quality of dose estimation and reconstruction efforts being performed for purposes of the compensation program; and advice on petitions to add classes of workers to the Special Exposure Cohort.

In December 2000, the President delegated responsibility for funding, staffing, and operating the Advisory Board to HHS, which subsequently delegated this authority to CDC. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) implements this responsibility for CDC. The charter was issued on August 3, 2001, renewed at appropriate intervals, and will expire on August 3, 2017.

Purpose: The Advisory Board is charged with (a) providing advice to the Secretary, HHS, on the development of guidelines under Executive Order 13179; (b) providing advice to the Secretary, HHS, on the scientific validity and quality of dose reconstruction efforts performed for this program; and (c) upon request by the Secretary, HHS, advise the Secretary on whether there is a class of employees at any Department of Energy facility who were exposed to radiation but for whom it is not feasible to estimate their radiation dose, and on whether there is reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the health of members of this class. SPR was established to aid the Advisory Board in carrying out its duty to advise the Secretary, HHS, on dose reconstruction. SPR is responsible for overseeing, tracking, and participating in the reviews of all procedures used in the dose reconstruction process by the NIOSH Division of Compensation Analysis and Support (DCAS) and its dose reconstruction contractor (Oak Ridge Associated Universities—ORAU).

Matters for Discussion: The agenda for the Subcommittee meeting includes discussion of procedures in the following ORAU and DCAS technical documents: OCAS Technical Information Bulletin (TIB) 0014 (“Rocky Flats Internal Dosimetry Coworker Extension”), ORAU OTIB 0013 (“Individual Dose Adjustment Procedures for Y-12 Dose Reconstructions”), ORAU OTIB 0029 (“Internal Dose Reconstructions for Y-12”), ORAU OTIB 0039 (“Internal Dose Reconstructions for Hanford”), ORAU OTIB 0050 (“The Use of Rocky Flats Neutron Dose Reconstruction Project Data in Dose Reconstructions”), ORAU OTIB 0060 (“Internal Dose Reconstructions”), Program Evaluation Report (PER) 003 (“The Effects of Adding Ingestion Intakes to Bethlehem Steel Cases”), PER 004 (“Application of Photofluorography at the Pinellas Plant”), PER 005 (“Misinterpreted Application of External Dose Factor for Hanford Dose Reconstructions”), PER 029 (“Hanford TBD Revision”), PER 042 (“Linde Ceramic Plant TBD Revision”), PER 045 (“Aliquippa Forge TBD Revision”), ORAU PROC 0042 (“Incomplete Monitoring at Y-12”), ORAU RPRT 0044 (“Analysis of Bioassay Data with Significant Fraction of Less-Than Results”); and a continuation of the comment-resolution process for other dose reconstruction procedures under review by the Subcommittee.

The agenda is subject to change as priorities dictate.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Theodore Katz, Designated Federal Officer, NIOSH, CDC, 1600 Clifton Road NE., Mailstop E-20, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, Telephone (513) 533-6800, Toll Free 1(800) CDC-INFO, Email ocas@cdc.gov.

The Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, has been delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices pertaining to announcements of meetings and other committee management activities, for both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.