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Linde Ceramics Plant

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(Site Profile/Docket Number 049)

Location: Tonawanda, New York

Also Known As: Linde Air, Praxair, Tonawanda Laboratory

Special Exposure Cohort Petition Information

The Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) is a unique category of employees established by the Act (42 CFR Part 83). Claims compensated under the SEC do not have to go through the dose reconstruction process. To qualify for compensation under the SEC, a covered employee must meet specific requirements (e.g., must have at least one of 22 “specified cancers,” and have worked for a specified time period at one of the SEC sites). Classes of employees and work sites can be considered for addition to the SEC through a NIOSH petition process. More information about the Special Exposure Cohort can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Open/Active SEC Petitions

To date, there are no open/active SEC petitions from Linde Ceramics Plant.

Class(es) Added to the SEC

  • Atomic Weapons Employees who worked at the Linde Ceramics Plant from October 1, 1942 through October 31, 1947 and who were employed for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters (excluding aggregate work day requirements) established for other classes of employees included in the SEC.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 44

  • All Atomic Weapons Employees who worked at the Linde Ceramics Plant in Tonawanda, New York, from January 1, 1954 through December 31, 1969, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, occurring either solely under this employment, or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 107

  • All Atomic Weapons Employees who worked in any area at the Linde Ceramics Plant in Tonawanda, New York, from November 1, 1947, through December 31, 1953, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days, occurring either solely under this employment or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees included in the SEC.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 154

Classes Not Added to the SEC

  • All Department of Energy employees and Atomic Weapons Employees who worked at the Linde Ceramics Plant in Tonawanda, New York, during the period from January 1, 1970 through July 31, 2006.

    Note: This class was established from Petition 107

Petitions Qualified for Evaluation

Below is a list of the petitions that qualified for evaluation. Select a petition on the list to view the table for that particular petition.

SEC Petitions Not Qualifying for Evaluation

In addition to the petitions listed above, an additional petition was received but did not meet the minimum petition requirements.

Worker Outreach Activities

Based on a recommendation from the Advisory Board to provide workers and site experts with opportunities to participate in developing the technical documents used in dose reconstruction, NIOSH established a Worker Outreach Program.

At Worker Outreach Meetings, current and former DOE and AWE employees have opportunities to obtain information about Site Profiles, Technical Basis Documents, and Technical Information Bulletins, and to provide information for consideration and possible use in dose reconstruction. This process is valuable to ensure that the technical documents used in dose reconstruction contain correct and useful information.

Worker Outreach Activities for the Linde Ceramics Plant:

Advisory Board Work Group on Linde Ceramics Plant

This Work Group is responsible for reviewing the SEC petition from the Linde Ceramics Plant petitioners, reviewing the NIOSH Evaluation Report of the petition, considering issues raised by the Board’s contractor (SC&A), and for assisting NIOSH and SC&A in the resolution of such issues. The Work Group may recommend to the Board, changes in the Site Profile as appropriate. The Work Group should strive to develop a recommendation to the Board on whether a class should be added to the SEC.

Work Group Members:

  • Genevieve S. Roessler, Ph.D. (Chair)

  • Josie Beach

  • James E. Lockey, M.D.

Meeting Information

Pre-Decisional Document Policy

Please note that as part of the procedures and processes of the Advisory Board’s Work Groups, several kinds of pre-decisional documents may be developed. These pre-decisional documents, such as white papers, matrices, working drafts, etc., are distributed among Work Group members as research and background tools to facilitate discussion and deliberation. Although discussion during a public meeting may cover pre-decisional documents, these documents often are not further revised or finalized, and thus do not reflect the final determination or evaluation of the Advisory Board and its Work Groups. Additionally, some pre-decisional documents not otherwise posted on the website may contain sensitive information, which would require an interested party to obtain such documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CDC/ATSDR FOIA office at foiarequests@cdc.gov.

Technical Documents

If the energy employee’s personal radiation information is incomplete, NIOSH will use other sources to estimate the radiation dose. This may involve using technical documents called Site Profiles, Technical Basis Documents, and Technical Information Bulletins.

Technical Basis Documents

  • An Exposure Matrix for Linde Ceramics Plant (Including Tonawanda Laboratory), Rev. 4 [856 KB (100 pages)]

    Revised May 8, 2015

    Revision Includes: Corrects a footnote in Table 4-24 (the year 1947 superscript was changed from i to j). Changes made to Section 6.4 regarding tunnel occupancy time. Previous text of assuming trade workers and laborers worked in tunnels doing maintenance for 8 hr/wd (2 months of the year) and for the other 10 months, a transit time of 10 min/wd using the tunnels to get between buildings. For all other workers only the transit time of 10 min/wd should be applied year-round, was changed to, for Trade Workers & Laborer it is assumed that they worked in these tunnels doing maintenance 50% of their time. For all other workers, an occupancy factor of 5% was assumed. This change did not affect Table 6-12 values. No changes occurred as a result of formal internal review.

Advisory Board and NIOSH Discussions on Linde Ceramics Plant

The Linde Ceramics Plant discussion papers listed below are working documents prepared by NIOSH or its contractor for use in discussions with the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health or its Working Groups or Subcommittees. Draft, preliminary, interim, and white paper documents are not final NIOSH or Advisory Board (or their technical support and review contractors) positions unless specifically marked as such. These documents represent preliminary positions taken on technical issues prepared by NIOSH or its contractor.

The discussion papers have been reviewed to identify and redact any information that is protected by the Privacy Act 5 USC §552a and have been cleared for distribution.

Program Evaluations Plans (PEPs) and Program Evaluation Reports (PERs)

NIOSH is committed to applying the best available science in dose reconstructions. In keeping with this commitment, completed cases with probabilities of causation less than 50% are reviewed as relevant new information becomes available. The results of these reviews are described in a Program Evaluation Report (PER). The PER details the effect, if any, of the new information on the completed dose reconstruction. If it appears that the new information may result in an increase in dose for a completed dose reconstruction with a probability of causation of less than 50%, NIOSH is committed to working with the Department of Labor to reopen and rework the dose reconstruction, as appropriate. A Program Evaluation Plan (PEP) describes plans for evaluating specific program details or issues.

We have developed PERs and PEPs that pertain to multiple sites. To view all PERs and PEPs that have been developed, please refer to the Program Evaluation Reports (PERs) and Program Evaluation Plans (PEPs) page.

  • DCAS-PER-042 Rev-0: Program Evaluation Report: Linde Ceramics Plant Technical Basis Document Revision [18 KB (2 pages)]

    November 16, 2012

    About this Document: Determines which previously completed claims require evaluation for the affect of revising the Linde Ceramics Plant TBD.

    Summary: The selection criteria resulted in 78 claims requiring further evaluation. For those claims, the dose was recalculated using all current dose reconstruction methods including the current version of the TBD. From that recalculated dose, a new probability of causation was determined. The probability of causation remained below 45% for 74 of the 78 claims. None of the cases resulted in a probability of causation between 45% and 50%. The four remaining cases had a probability of causation greater than 50%.

We have developed PERs and PEPs that pertain to multiple sites. To view all PERs and PEPs that have been developed, please refer to the Program Evaluation Reports (PERs) and Program Evaluation Plans (PEPs) page.

Public Comments on Linde Ceramics Plant Documents

How to Submit Comments

Comments on Linde Ceramics Plant Documents can be submitted to the NIOSH Docket Officer electronically by email at nioshdocket@cdc.gov or printed comments can be mailed to:

NIOSH Docket Office
Robert A. Taft Laboratories, MS-C34
1090 Tusculum Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45226
Please include the Site Profile/Docket Number (049) on all comments.

Comments Received

At this time, no comments have been submitted.

Document Archive for Linde Ceramics Plant

  • An Exposure Matrix for Linde Ceramics Plant (including Tonawanda Laboratory)

    • Revised July 26, 2012 [856 KB (100 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Incorporates changes associated with SEC-0154. This change constitutes the resolution of SEC-0154. No new exposure scenarios were added. Changes were made to Sections 1.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 4.0, 4.4, 6.0 and 6.1. Minor changes were made to the Acronyms and Abbreviations, and Reference Sections. Removed former Attachment D (Uranium coworker assessment for November 1947 to January 1950). Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

    • Revised July 15, 2011 [927 KB (106 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Incorporates changes associated with SEC-0107. This change constitutes the resolution of SEC-0107. This includes the exposure scenarios for the tunnels, the external for the renovation period and the post-renovation period. An SEC was approved covering internal exposures during the renovation period (1954 to 1969). Changes were made to Sections 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and the references. In addition, Sections 1.3, 2.3.5, and 6.4 were added. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

    • Revised November 10, 2009 [923 KB (102 pages)]

      Revision Includes: Approved page change revision to incorporate additional guidance on the use of Attachment E of the document. This change constitutes the resolution of Advisory Board Work Group concern and clarifies how to proceed in the event of credible indication of potential exposure to contaminated burlap bags that were used for transport of ore at Linde Ceramics Plant. Changes were made to page 37 in Section 4.0.

    • Revised November 4, 2008 [915 KB (102 pages)]

      Page Change Revision Includes: Change from a page change revision (Rev 00 PC-2-B) to a total rewrite (Rev 01-A) as a result of formal NIOSH review. Revised to incorporate: (1) change in facility designation, (2) DOL interpretation of applicability of residual period to Ceramics Plant, (3) and resolution of Advisory Board Work Group comments, (4) clarified the implementation instructions for SEC00044 for the period October 1, 1942 through October 31, 1947. Incorporates formal internal and NIOSH review comments. Constitutes a total rewrite of the document.

    • Page Change Revision January 19, 2006 [821 KB (96 pages)]

      Page Change Revision Includes: Modified to incorporate comments from OCAS, a Worker Outreach meeting comment and minor editing. The Introduction on page 10 was updated. Dates were changed in Section 3.0 to incorporate the decision to designate Linde Ceramics Plant workers, who received internal exposures prior to 11/01/1947, as a Special Exposure Cohort. Moved Table 12, an internal exposure table out of Section 4.0. Changes were made to page 23 in Section 3, page 34 in Table 7, page 35 in Table 8, page 38 in Table 11, and Table 12 on page 39. No sections were deleted.

    • Approved May 31, 2005 [867 KB (94 pages)]
  • SEC Petition Evaluation Report for Linde Ceramics Plant (January 1, 1954 through July 31, 2006) [698 KB (35 pages)]
    November 5, 2008
  • SEC Petition Evaluation Report for Linde Ceramics Plant (November 1, 1947 through December 31, 1953) [361 KB (62 pages)]
    November 4, 2010