Agenda Work Group
Meeting Minutes
January 03, 2002

ORRHES members:

Barbara Sonnenburg, Chair, Jeff Hill; Susan Kaplan; James Lewis; Don Creasia (phone)

Public members:

Linda Gass (phone)

ATSDR staff:

La Freta Dalton (phone), Bill Murray

The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Barbara Sonnenburg, at 4:00 PM.

The following issue was held over from the December ORRHES meeting:

Barbara Sonnenburg stated that an update is needed on the issues and questions for Dr. Robert Jackson, Health Resources and Services Administration.

Susan Kaplan thinks that a new work group should be formed to address the issue of a clinic for Oak Ridge Reservation residents. There was an extended discussion about the clinic issue. James Lewis stated that the issues and questions were not captured in the list of action items or in the minutes. He believes that the videotape of Dr. Jackson’s presentation at the September 2001 ORRHES meeting should be reviewed to identify the issues and questions raised by ORRHES members at that meeting. Susan Kaplan and Barbara Sonnenburg asked who would do the review. La Freta Dalton said that Bill Carter of ATSDR would review the videotape and send a list of the issues to Dr. Jackson by email. James Lewis also said that a decision needs to be made whether a new work group is formed or the issue is referred to the Health Needs Assessment Work Group (HNAWG) and a rationale for a clinic needs to be developed. Jeff Hill suggested that the issue be raised as new business in the next ORRHES meeting.

Barbara Sonnenburg reiterated that the issue is whether to establish a new work group or refer the issue to HNAWG.

Barbara Sonnenburg brought up the issue of having a DOE person as an ex-officio member of ORRHES. She said the discussion of this issue was tabled at the last ORRHES meeting.

James Lewis said the issue needs to be analyzed in a work group session after reviewing and evaluating the discussion from other meetings.

Susan Kaplan agreed.

Linda Gass said the pros and cons were laid out at the 1st and 3rd ORRHES meetings at which there were extensive discussions. A vote was taken and, during the vote, the Chair ruled that it was a major issue, requiring a 2/3 majority. The vote failed. Linda Gass stated that there are no disenfranchised members on ORRHES.

Barbara Sonnenburg questioned whether to bring the issue up since the motion failed. Jeff Hill said that Kowetha Davidson requested the issue be put on the next ORRHES agenda and a block of time be allotted for discussion.

James Lewis that an analysis of the past discussions is needed before bringing the issue to the table.

Jeff Hill said that the issue has not been assigned to any work group.

James Lewis insisted that it must be assigned to a work group.

Barbara Sonnenburg reminded the group that the Chair requested the time.

Linda Gass said there are inconsistencies in handling issues. Not all issues go through a work group. The process is circumventing the FACA process. She thinks it is unfair for the Chair to keep putting the issue on the agenda.

Jeff Hill made a motion to “put on the agenda whether to have a DOE representative on ORRHES as an ad hoc, non-voting member.”

Don Creasia seconded the motion.

Linda Gass said the motion was out of order. James Lewis referred back to Linda Gass’s comment and stated that an ad hoc work group is needed to capture past dialogue on this issue.

Barbara Sonnenburg called the question. The motion failed (2 yes [Jeff Hill, Don Creasia]; 3 no [Susan Kaplan, James Lewis, Linda Gass]).

James Lewis voted no because it is not being done in an organized fashion.

Barbara Sonnenburg referred to the public health assessment (PHA) issues listed in the email as concerns raised by ORRHES (I-131 approach; ATSDR screening of contaminants; health needs assessment study; work group updates).

Bill Murray reviewed the items briefly.

Linda Gass stated she is concerned about doing a standard PHA and thinks that the issues should be identified.

James Lewis has two concerns: 1) there is no analysis of lessons learned; 2) there have been no additional PHA work group meetings.

Barbara Sonnenburg said there have been problems because of vacations. She raised the issue of medical surveillance programs for DOE workers.

Bill Murray described the legislation that is driving the program and that it is being implemented across the whole DOE complex.

Susan Kaplan said that information is needed on the legislative background.

James Lewis said that OR residents do not trust the local physicians and that the process used in the Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP) that the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical, and Energy (PACE) union has set up here in conjunction with Queens College in New York City to do surveillance on their workers should be looked at.

Jeff Hill suggested we have the DOE talk first.

James Lewis said documenting exposures is a key issue.

Barbara Sonnenburg said we should hear how Queens College does their diagnoses.

Linda Gass made a motion to have knowledgeable persons present to ORRHES what goes on in the DOE medical surveillance. The motion was withdrawn.

Jeff Hill suggested we bring in PACE/Queens College in the meeting after DOE presents.

Barbara Sonnenburg agreed to do it later.

Susan Kaplan made a motion to “have an agenda entry for a program/process review of DOE Headquarters worker medical and exposure surveillance program.”

Jeff Hill seconded.

The motion passed unanimously.

Barbara Sonnenburg remarked that we should start to set agenda up.

Linda Gass requested that there be a discussion of the historical oversight roles by representatives from the Tennessee Department of Environment, EPA, and the Local Oversight Committee.

There was discussion of setting times on the agenda for the routine items. James Lewis wanted to allot 30 min. to Jerry Pereira. He reiterated that there is no project plan, time line or procedures for the work being done here.

La Freta Dalton said we need to allow 1.5 hrs for work group reports and 30 min for public comment.

Barbara Sonnenburg asked about talks by the Tennessee Department of Health (TD) on the cancer registry and a NOSH update.

La Freta said she would send out a revised agenda that gives 2 hours for the PHA, 1.5 hours for DOE, 1 hour for TD, and ½ hour for Jerry Pereira.

The next meeting will be on January 17, 2002, at 4:00 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM.