NIOSH Information
NIOSH's role in EEOICPA is an important one because they do the workers' dose reconstructions.
New NIOSH FOIA
This email stream was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The emails discuss how NIOSH should prioritize Special Exposure Cohort petitions.
NIOSH FOIA Fee Waiver
NIOSH has issued a blanket fee waiver for all requesters who act as advocates of former nuclear workers.
November 2012 NIOSH Ombudsman's Workshop
The purpose of this EEOICPA Workshop was to give advocates an opportunity to observe multi-agency representatives giving in-depth instruction and guidance on program nuances such as dose reconstruction, special exposure cohort process, site exposure matrices, home health, and other relevant issues.
The workshop was also a great opportunity for advocates to meet and network with each other as well as interact with agency representatives. It was an educational and fun rather than an adversarial or confrontational experience for the advocates who are much needed in the EEOICPA process. Below you will find PowerPoints and videos made at the workshop to assist advocates and claimants better understand how EEOICPA works to help all valid EEOICPA claims get paid.
At the workshop, a question was raised on how to know which
cancers had a larger chance of being compensable.
NIOSH responded that internal exposures often resulted in
larger organ doses than external exposures, and that
different radionuclides concentrate in different organs.
The probability of causation depends on the cancer.
NIOSH was asked where someone can find information about
what materials concentrate in what organs, and replied that
information is contained in a number of ICRP reports, and
promised to send the numbers of those reports. NIOSH
warned that ICRP sells the reports and that they are
expensive. NIOSH has
provided the ICRP reports that describe how radioactive
materials behave in the body are given in the following
message. Be sure to read the introductory sentences,
because they identify reports that are not in the table.
The following web link to IG-002 that is posted on the DCAS
website. It provides a general description of the lung
and GI model, as well as some basic concepts on how we go
about DRs:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/pdfs/dr/drgdin.pdf.
Videos from Workshop Sessions
Videos will be added to the playlist as they are processed. Also, I apologize for the quality of the videos. I'm just learning how to do this.
PowerPoint Presentations
Dose Reconstruction PowerPoints
NIOSH has held several workshops explaining how they do their dose reconstructions. Here are three PowerPoint presentations from their September 22-23, 2009 workshop.
Dose Reconstruction Process Overview shows how NIOSH handles a claim from the beginning when they receive a claimant's information from DOL through the dose reconstruction process.
Dose Reconstruction Examples illustrates an overestimate, an underestimate, best estimate and a partial estimate based on hypothetical claims.
Probability of Causation and NIOSH-IREP discusses how NIOSH uses the IREP as well as the reasoning and statistics it uses.
Validity of X-Ray reports
Recently there has been some confusion within EEOICPA on whether certain x-ray reports are valid or not. Some claimants have had their "b-reads" refused if the technician did not sign the report. NIOSH's Dr. Howard clarified the issue for ANWAG. If you have had this problem, please contact ANWAG or EECAP for help.
