For Immediate Release: April 17, 2003

ATLANTA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announces that a meeting of the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee (ORRHES) will be held from 12:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. April 22 at the YWCA, 1660 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, Tenn.

At the request of ORRHES, ATSDR will host presentations on the following topics:

ATSDR's overview of the public health assessment (PHA) on the Y-12 uranium releases
Comparison of ATSDR's minimal risk level (MRL) and the ATSDR cancer comparison value
Health statistics review, a method of examining disease occurrence in a geographic area.
ORRHES Public Health Work Group (PHAWG) will present a health statistics review of the Tennessee Cancer Registry data.

Members of the community are encouraged to attend and will have the opportunity to make comments between the times of 2:20 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.

The entire agenda for the public meeting can be viewed by accessing the following link:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/oakridge/meet/agenda/m4_22_03.html

The ATSDR public health assessment on the Y-12 uranium releases will be available for public comment in May 2003. Information will be provided at a later date in your local newspaper.

Members of the community who have questions about this meeting, ORRHES or ATSDR activities at the Oak Ridge Reservation may contact the ORRHES Designated Federal Official, La Freta Dalton, toll free, at 1-888-422-8737. Callers should refer to the Oak Ridge site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.