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Human Health Studies Programs Division of Biomedical and Energy Research and Development There are several purposes for this letter. First,I should like to request that you advise ERDA repre - sent at ives at Oak Ridge that they should not interfere,directly or indirectly,with what i s mai'led by my staff stationed at Oak Ridge. I wish to emphasize that the2persons I have stationed at Oak Ridge are personnel of the University of Pittsburgh ; that they are directly responsible tome and that no one has the right to tell them what to mail or not mail,nor what procedures are tobe carried out,other than the principal investigator. This complaint is prompted by an incident that occurred at Oak Ridge on February8,1977. Regardless whether the instructions were generated by ERDA representatives at Oak Ridge or in response to your own instruct - ions,I wish to advise you that it i s most unusual and,in my opinion,improper for a government agency to interfere with the personnel of any research study regardless who funds the study. A s you car, gather,I do not consider this a minor incident and wish to prevent this "symptom" from becoming a pattern by ERDA involving my staff at Oak Ridge. The second purpose of this letter is to remind ERDA that the provisions of the agreement,that I initiated with Social Security, relative to the AEC Health and Mortality Study was to provide the principal investigator of the University of Pittsburgh,then or tal -
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it y data for analyses,with necessary assurances of confide n - Recently, an event occurred which warrants my concern to ensure that the provisions of that agreement are adhered to. After I refused your request to transmit to Dr.Charles Land (statistician)of the National Cancer Institute,a copy of my computer tape on the Hanford radiation study, you then requested that the Oak Ridge Computer Center send a copy of my Hanford research records (which were on file storage at the Computer Center) toDr.Charles Land ofN.C.1, The Computer Center then complied with your request as the funding agency. They considered they had In this instance ERDA inter cee ded and overruled the pr in - ci pal investigator ' s decision as to the disposition of his own research data, which he has under continual analyses - I n terns of principles,I feel that this was an unwarranted intrusion in the scientific research, which should be and must be independent of the government agency supporting the research. From what I have learned,the programmer atthe Oak Ridge Computer Center,fortunately,deleted certain identifying chara c - ter is tics.Nevertheless,if this had not been done,the event could have been considered a breech of contract by ERDA relative to the confidentiality assurances with the Social Security Administration. I have just learned of another event that ERDA has already permitted an agreement with the International Nickel Co.for the use of the data generated in my research study of the former AEC workers a t Oak Ridge without the knowledge or permission of the principal Itwas my original design,years before anyone recognized the irn.Fortance of this aspect,that I included the met2ls and other carcinogen t agents in the AEC research study,in order to avoid the problems of attributing to radiation,the effects that might be due to other industrial causes, Again, recently,I have been contacted by the Chicago office of ERDA,the contracting officer,through the University of Pittsburgh
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In the first place, Union Carbide (Oak Ridge) has all the Oak Ridge death certificates, because a copy of every death certificate on (Union Carbide) Oak Ridge personnel is already at Oak Ridge. If this request pertains to Hanford deaths. Then the request does not apply because Union Carbide has no authority responsibility for Hanford data. A separate memorandum will be sent to the Chicago office relative to this matter, You should be aware of the fact that the Oak Ridge Computer Center is -not the repository for all the Hanford study data. Oak Ridge Computer Center has only been delegated specific responsibiiities from time to time when and as I deemed to be appropriate. I have not authorized any analysis of the Hanford data by the Computer Center at Oak Ridge. I would appreciate your attention to these matters, so that there will not be any recurrences and that cordial relationships will be maintained. Department of Industrial Environmental Health Sciences