02-19283. Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker 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 committee meeting.

Name: Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (ABRWH).

Times and Dates: 12:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m., August 14, 2002. 8 a.m.-5 p.m., August 15, 2002.

Place: Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, 151 West Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, telephone [phone], fax [phone].

Status: Open to the public, limited only by the space available. The meeting room accommodates approximately 65 people.

Background: The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (“the Board”) was established under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 to advise the President, through the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), on a variety of policy and technical functions required to implement and effectively manage the new compensation program. Key functions of the Board include providing advice on the development of probability of causation guidelines which have been promulgated by HHS, advice on methods of dose reconstruction which have been promulgated as an interim final rule, evaluation of the validity and quality of dose reconstructions conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for qualified cancer claimants, and advice on the addition of classes of workers to the Special Exposure Cohort.

In December 2000 the President delegated responsibility for funding, staffing, and operating the Board to HHS, which subsequently delegated this authority to the CDC. NIOSH implements this responsibility for CDC. The charter was signed on August 3, 2001, and in November 2001 the President completed the appointment of an initial roster of 10 Board members. In April 2002 the President appointed an additional member to ensure more balanced representation on the Board. The initial tasks of the Board will be to review and provide advice on the proposed and interim rules of HHS.

Purpose: This 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.

Matters To Be Discussed: Agenda for this meeting will include presentations for the Board's information on the adjudication of claims for atomic veterans, dose reconstruction for atomic veterans, and probability of causation determination for atomic veterans. The Board's agenda also includes development of comments on the Special Exposure Cohort Petitioning Process Guidelines (NPRM), dose reconstruction workgroup discussion and issues, and Board discussion of Board responsibilities.

Agenda items are subject to change as priorities dictate.

Contact Person for More Information: Larry Elliott, Executive Secretary, ABRWH, NIOSH, CDC, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226, telephone [phone], fax [phone].

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.

Dated: July 25, 2002.

John C. Burckhardt,

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