The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today announces that a meeting of the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee (ORRHES) will be held Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The meeting will be held from noon to 7:00 p.m. at the Department of Energy (DOE) Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, Tenn. A presentation and discussion on the Health Education Needs Assessment will take place from 12:35 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Members of the community are encouraged to attend and will have the opportunity to make comments from 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

ORRHES, a federal advisory committee created in 1999, is comprised of a representative group of citizens that live in the communities surrounding the Oak Ridge Reservation. The group provides advice and recommendations to ATSDR and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the two agencies' public health activities and research regarding the Oak Ridge Reservation site. ORRHES members work with private citizens, advocacy groups, state agencies and federal agencies in the region and provide community members with an opportunity to communicate directly with federal public health agencies. The group holds regular meetings to update the community on ongoing activities.

Members of the community who have questions about these meetings, ORRHES or ATSDR activities at the Oak Ridge Reservation may contact the ORRHES Designated Federal Official, Lorine Spencer, toll free at 1-888-422-8737, or at 404-498-1745, or Environmental Health Scientist Bill Taylor at 865-220-0295 in the Oak Ridge Field Office. Callers should refer to the Oak Ridge site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.