ABRWH August 22-23, 2018 Meeting Summary

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health held its 124^th public meeting in Providence, RI August 22-23, 2018.  Two board members, Wanda Munn and Dr. John Poston, retired recently.  A tribute to their service was adopted by the board.

There was no news on who will be named Chair for the board. Dr. Paul Ziemer and Ted Katz, Designated Federal Official for the Board, remain as co-Chairs for the board after the passing of Dr. James Melius.

NIOSH adopted a suggestion from the advocates to post the references they use for their discussion papers when those papers are made available to the public.

Many scientific organizations, such as the National Academy of Sciences are interested in the issue of the best method to reconstruct dose for exposure to low level radiation.  NIOSH will wait until those other organizations debate the issue before deciding whether NIOSH should change their methodology.

The Board unanimously agreed with NIOSH and voted to expand the SEC years for Sandia National Laboratory to December 31, 1996. The reason is that NIOSH found that Sandia’s data base was not reliable for entries entered in 1995 and 1996. NIOSH will continue to investigate whether additional years should be added.

The petitioners for Metal and Controls presented to the board in person and provided arguments countering NIOSH’s position that they can reconstruct dose for these sites.  It was noted that the site underwent several radiological surveys.  One board member asked about the relevance of the last survey done in 1994.  The petitioner explained the reason for this survey was there was a concern that the highly enriched uranium in the trenches could result in a criticality.

The petitioner for the Desoto facility also presented in person arguments urging the Board to designate that site as an SEC.  Board members questioned NIOSH’s assertion that dose can be reconstructed for this site despite that the sister facility, Santa Susana Field Laboratory, is a member of the SEC.  Further discussions will be held by the work group.

There are still some issues with locating dosimetry records for Idaho National Lab’s SEC. NIOSH and SC&A, the board’s contractor, will continue the investigation.

NIOSH gave an update on the status of white papers due for various SEC petitions under discussion.  They hope to have most of them ready for the next in-person meeting.  The board closed out the revisions for the Pacific Proving Grounds site profile.

Copies of presentations and discussion papers can be found here.

The next in-person board meeting will be held in Los Angeles, CA December 12-13, 2018.