Study of the Lifetime Health and Mortality Experience of Employees of AEC Contractors

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Study of t h e Lifetime Health and Mortality Experience of Employees of Developments during the last contract period include the following: 1. Letter from Dr.Totter to Robert M. Ball, Commissioner of Social Security (9/25/70) requesting that the highest priority be established for this study i n order to lessen the time period required for the processing of data through S o c i a l Security. (Endorsed by Dr. S. English). Commissioner Ball gave us a positive response. Controller, making recommendations on accelerated shipment of records t o the Federal Records Centers (F'RC) for long term storage. Several meetings have been conducted with AEC and AEC-contractor records people i n an attempt to find solutions to this perpetual problem. relating to this project have been released for shipment tothe FRC. We received a memo (Dec. 18, 1970) from M r . Arthur Schoenhaut, Deputy To date, no records Committee f o r Biology and Medicine a t AEC HQ on January 8, 1971. Committee gave a critical review of the program in their letter to the Chairman dated February 11, 1971. Dr. bhncuso presented the AEC Health and Mortality Study tothe Advisory of HQ personnel assisting Dr.Wc uso in his attempt t o purge the SSA's 1% Continuous Work History Sample of all AEC contractor employees. Attendees included representatives from MIT, Security and DBM. Il ulli on personnel records on file. SS numbers associated with-the employee's record. Thus, t h e s e records do not provide the necessary means to identify AEC contractor employees inthe A meeting was held January 20, 1971 atAEC HQ t o determine the capability AEC HQ have approximately Only about 4% of these records have 5 . Several attempts were made by the T. R.to obtain approval for use of a portion of the Hanford Records Center Building 712 for storage of records pertaining to this study generated atthe Hanford facility. been granted primarily because this would conflict with the government's policy for more efficient use of the Federal Record Centers. Approval has not approaches that might be used t o resolve the problem of record storage as it pertains to this research project. Those i n attendance included: Stanwood, Goldstein and Brooks from DBM and Gorman and Rademacher from OC. It was concluded that : (a) No action will be taken toward release of the records t o F'RC storage until after June 1971. This action would then be taken only after reevaluation of the entire record storage situation.(b) Since Savannah River (E. I. Dupont De Nemours and Co.) i s under the greatest pressure t o ship A meeting was held in DBM on February 16, 1971 t o discuss possible

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I records t o FRC, we will explore with them the possibility of obtaining a complete list of AEC employees and SS numbers i n exchange for our agreement to release the records for FR C storage. No records have been released to FRC t o date (that we are aware of). Arrangements are underway t o obtain from Savannah River t h e personnel data available on tape. for additional personnel data. No attempt will be made t o search through the files 7. I n response toa request from the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, February 10, 1971, a current status report was presented tothe committee. 8. In a letter from Dr.Totter to Mr. Donnelly, mnager, AI,, dated March 4, 1971, a request was made for submission of a 189 to initiate the study at Mound Laboratory population in this investigation. We have received the protocol and estimated budget Approval has been granted by DB M for incorporation of the General mnager dated April 12, 1971. A status report on this project was submitted tothe Commission thru the 10. Dr. Allen Brodsky, one of the investigators on this project, resigned from the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh (April 1971). will continue his association with the project as a consultant. 11. On May 12, 1971, Dr. Mancuso and his staff made a presentation to DB M Hanford and Oak Ridge were also present. death data related to life span of employees and did not attempt to correlate employment with cause of death or to radiation exposure. detectable differences in life span of employees and siblings. On the average the non - starts have a slightly higher mortality rate than employees and siblings. These preliminary comparisons are based upon only l@ of the total Hanford population and should not be taken as being conclusive. 12. On June 4, 1971, the FY 72 work plan and fund allocation for the Oak Ridge, Hanford (HEHF), Mound Laboratory and SSA phases of t h e program were reviewed by DBM. Our comments and recommendations were transmitted to Dr. Mancuso i n a letter dated June 25, 1971. Dr. Mancuso's response t o our recommendations i s presented in a letter dated July 22, 1971. referenced 189's are on file). ;lie preliminary data of t h e Hanford population. Representatives from This preliminary analysis of (All this material with I 13. A meeting was held a t HQ on August 3, 1971, t o discuss with the concerned divisions a proposal by Operational Safety that requests the Division of Production t o incorporate the costs associated with the updating of annual records of exposwe of Richland and oak Ridge contractor personnel into the

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normal operating budget. Others present included: that favorable consideration would be given t o picking up the cost of maintaining current the records of all facilities starting about January 1, 1972, if the details can be worked out by then. They did not think that it would be possible for operational funds t o be used for retrospective updating of records at the facilities not presently included inthe study. Dr. Ross will be responsible for providing the necessary information to the divisions concerned so this transfer e of cost can be initiated as soon a s possible. The meeting was conducted by Dr. Don Ross of OS. 14. On August 23, 1971, asite review of the Oak Ridge phase of the program was conducted by Dr. Weyzen, Dr. William Lloyd of HEW, Mr. Tony Brazley, and the computer operations. However, we felt that a distinct lack of close contact between the P. 1. and the Oak Ridge group was evident. A similar site - visit to HEHF i s planned. We were favorably impressed by the data extraction techniques and 15.A two-month extension (8-1-71 thru 9-30-71) without additional funds was given this contract to permit additional time for submission of the annual 16. The contract AT(49-7)-3061 with SSA was renewed on September 8, 1971, i n the amount of $l72,OOO for FY 1972. performed i n FY 7lbut not paid for until FY 72 inthe amount of $51,145. 17. Arrangements have been made for the first meeting of the AEC Health and Mortali-cy Study Advisory Committee a t O a k Ridge on October 22, 1971. This amount includes payment f o r work An ad hoc review committee t o evaluate this program i s being established. We plan t o have the review committee meet atthe same time as the Advisory Committee i f necessary arrangements can be made. Unexp funds: 18,438 - (Used during 2 mo. extension)