E9-5522. Subcommittee on Procedures Reviews, Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

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

Time and Date: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., March 24, 2009.

Place: Cincinnati Airport Marriott, 2395 Progress Drive, Hebron, Kentucky 41018. Telephone [phone], Fax [phone].

Status: Open to the public, but without a public oral comment period. To access by conference call dial the following information 1 [phone], Participant Pass Code 9933701.

Background: 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 (SEC).

In December 2000, the President delegated responsibility for funding, staffing, and operating the Advisory Board to HHS, which subsequently delegated this authority to CDC. NIOSH implements this responsibility for CDC. The charter was issued on August 3, 2001, renewed at appropriate intervals, and will expire on August 3, 2009.

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 whether there is reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the health of members of this class. The Subcommittee on Procedures Reviews was established to aid the Advisory Board in carrying out its duty to advise the Secretary, HHS, on dose reconstruction. It will be responsible for overseeing, tracking, and participating in the reviews of all procedures used in the dose reconstruction process by the NIOSH Office of Compensation Analysis and Support (OCAS) and its dose reconstruction contractor.

Matters to be Discussed: The agenda for the Subcommittee meeting includes: A discussion of proposed new versions of the computer-assisted telephone interview scripts and procedures NIOSH uses to interview claimants at the outset of the dose reconstruction process; a discussion of ORAUT-OTIB-0054 (“Fission and Activation Product Assignment for Internal Dose-Related Gross Beta and Gross Gamma Analyses”), ORAUT-OTIB-0066 (“Calculation of Dose from Intakes of Special Tritium Compounds”), and ORAUT-OTIB-0052 (“Parameters for Processing Claims for Construction Workers”); 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.

In the event an individual cannot attend, written comments may be submitted. Any written comments received will be provided at the meeting and should be submitted to the contact person below in advance of the meeting.

This meeting was previously scheduled to convene on January 29, 2009, but was cancelled due to inclement weather and airport and facility inaccessibility. The meeting was scheduled to reconvene as soon as possible; therefore, this Federal Register notice is being published less than fifteen days prior to the meeting date.

For Further Information Contact: Theodore Katz, Executive Secretary, NIOSH, CDC, 1600 Clifton Road, Mailstop E-20, Atlanta GA 30333, Telephone [phone], Toll Free 1 (800) CDC-INFO, E-mail [e-mail].

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 CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Dated: March 6, 2009.

Elaine L. Baker,

Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.