NIOSH Reports to Congress

Access to Information for Dose Reconstruction

Section 3134(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 required that NIOSH submit a report on its ability to obtain the information necessary to complete radiation dose reconstructions.

NIOSH responded in its May 5, 2004, report to Congress. The report describes the information needed for dose reconstructions. It also explains what can hinder us from getting information in a timely, accurate, and complete manner.

• Report to Congress: Access to Information for Performance of Radiation Dose Reconstructions [196 KB (18 pages)]
  (May 5, 2004)
  • Attachment 1: Dose Reconstruction Processing Timeline Goals (May 5, 2004) [51 KB (1 page)]
  • Attachment 2: Dose Reconstruction Cases by Nuclear Weapons Production Facility [82 KB (5 pages)]

Special Exposure Cohort (SEC)

SEC Cancers

The Act refers to 22 “specified cancers” under the Special Exposure Cohort. In response to a 2005 report by the Senate (S. Rep. 109-103), NIOSH investigated 11 other cancers for possible inclusion in the list. Our researchers looked for evidence that these 11 “non-presumptive cancers” (cancers not presumed to be caused by radiation exposure) were in fact radiogenic (caused by radiation exposure). We issued conclusions in an interim report in June 2007 but continued research on the topic. We issued a final report in 2009 on the basis of several new reviews. One of these was a major review of the radiogenicity of specific cancers (by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), and two others served as primary references for the final NIOSH report. None of this research, however, led us to change the conclusions we had presented in the 2007 interim report.

NIOSH still found consistent evidence in the reviews to support the radiogenicity of basal cell carcinoma. The final report lists the number of cases of basal cell carcinoma among the classes of employees included in the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), as requested by the Senate in 2005.

Interim Report

• Report to the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Radiogenicity of Specific Cancers under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 as Amended [30 KB (11 pages)]
  (June 2007)

Final Report

• Report to the Senate Appropriations Committee on The Radiogenicity of Specific Cancers Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 as Amended [53 KB (10 pages)]
  (December 2009)

Special Exposure Cohort Petition Status

This report responds to Section 3167(b) of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization (NDAA) Act for Fiscal year 2005, Public Law 108-375. This Act required that NIOSH provide a status report on Special Exposure Cohort petitions that were filed before October 1, 2004.

The report includes the following:

• Summary of the procedures for designating classes of employees as members of the SEC
• Information on the current status of each petition at the time of the report
• Estimate of the time needed to complete the consideration of each petition
• Discussion of actions or circumstances that could prevent the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health from acting upon a petition before the end of Fiscal Year 2005 (September 30, 2005)

Report to Congress: Status of Petitions for Designating Classes of Employees as Members of the Special Exposure Cohort [427 KB (12 pages)]
(September 2005)

Residual Radioactive and Beryllium Contamination

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Pub. L. 107-107; Section 3151(b)) required that NIOSH submit, with the cooperation of the Department of Labor and Department of Energy, a report on whether or not significant contamination remained in any atomic weapons employer facility or facility of a beryllium vendor after the facility discontinued nuclear weapon production activities.

NIOSH issued the original “Report on Residual Radioactive and Beryllium Contamination at Atomic Weapons Employer Facilities and Beryllium Vendor Facilities” in November 2002 and updated it in October 2003. The Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (Pub. L. 108-375; Section 3169) required that NIOSH submit an additional update to the report in December 2006. Further updates were issued by NIOSH in October 2009 and August 2011.

More information on the report can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Residual Contamination Report page of our website.

The most recent and previous versions of the report are listed below:

Latest Version of the Residual Contamination Report

• August 2011 Report [59 KB (10 pages)]
  • Appendix A-1 [98 KB (7 pages)]
  • Appendix A-2 [838 KB (233 pages)]
  • Appendix B-1 [44 KB (3 pages)]
  • Appendix B-2 [352 KB (100 pages)]

Previous Versions of the Residual Contamination Report

• October 2009 Report [44 KB (8 pages)]
  • Appendix A-1 [133 KB (13 pages)]
  • Appendix A-2 [741 KB (239 pages)]
  • Appendix B-1 [57 KB (5 pages)]
  • Appendix B-2 [304 KB (100 pages)]
• December 2006 Report [2.3 MB (9 pages)]
  • Appendix A-1 [30 KB (12 pages)]
  • Appendix A-2 [46 KB (14 pages)]
  • Appendix A-3 [536 KB (236 pages)]
  • Appendix B-1 [22 KB (4 pages)]
  • Appendix B-2 [23 KB (4 pages)]
  • Appendix B-3 [237 KB (96 pages)]