Savannah River Site Health Effects Subcommittee (SRSHES) Meeting

Executive Summary

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List of Acronyms
	ATSDR  Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry  CDC  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  DOE  Department of Energy HESs  Health Effects Subcommittees NIOSH National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health SRSHES  Savannah River Site Health Effects Subcommittee

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) convened a meeting of the Savannah River Site Health Effects Subcommittee (SRSHES) on September 15, 2005 in Augusta, Georgia.

The January 25, 2005 SRSHES Meeting Minutes were unanimously approved with changes noted for the record and a status report was provided on action items raised during the previous meeting.

CDC distributed a draft of the independent peer review of the Advanced Technology Laboratory (ATL) International report on the SRS dose reconstruction study to SRSHES. The findings were also presented during the meeting. The peer review concluded that ATL’s models and approaches are standard, appropriate and have generated reasonable figures with no apparent gross errors. The doses appear to be reasonable compared to background doses over a 39-year period. Implementation of different approaches will not change the 95% confidence interval of doses reported in ATL’s uncertainty analysis. The peer review also determined that ATL should address deficiencies in the report. Point estimates, medians and means for the uncertainty analyses should be clarified and more strongly emphasized. Missing data should be provided to reproduce ATL’s figures.

Several actions were taken during the meeting to identify next steps in finalizing the ATL report. CDC described key findings from its dose reconstructions conducted at other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites and summarized comments submitted to date on the ATL report. SRSHES provided guidance on the nine recommendations in the ATL report. SRSHES formulated and unanimously approved a recommendation on specific actions CDC should take before the ATL report is finalized and released to the public. SRSHES agreed to follow up the consensus recommendation with a letter to CDC. CDC agreed to provide SRSHES with a written response to the letter.

ATSDR provided a status report of its current activities on the SRS public health assessment (PHA). The review of SRS’s history since 1993 and current status of the site has been completed. The identification and review of potential contaminants of concern, completed and potentially completed exposure pathways and other potential hazards unique to SRS are underway. ATSDR’s goal is to release the SRS PHA report in FY’06, but recognizes that drastic budget cuts for health-related research at DOE facilities may affect this timeline.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provided a status report on its completed and ongoing studies, research projects and other activities at SRS and other DOE sites. SRSHES was invited to submit comments on NIOSH’s agenda and budget of public health activities at DOE sites from FY’05-FY’10 that are now available on the NIOSH web site. SRSHES was also encouraged to attend the public meeting on October 27, 2005 in Washington, DC that will be held to inform workers and other stakeholders about NIOSH programs and current research activities.

The Acting Chair opened the floor for public comments at all times as noted on the published meeting agenda. The two action items raised over the course of the meeting were reviewed. Next steps in the SRS advisory committee process were identified because the current proceedings serve as SRSHES’s final face-to-face meeting. CDC will distribute the September 15, 2005 draft minutes to SRSHES for review and comment. CDC will address outstanding issues at SRS by convening an SRSHES conference call that will be published in the Federal Register and open to the public.

CDC thanked the former and current SRSHES members for their support, commitment, diligent efforts and valuable input to CDC over the years. CDC expressed its honor in being allowed to serve the SRS community.