The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), will hold a meeting of the Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee (ORRHES) on June 28 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The meeting will be held from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Department of Energy Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Agenda items include presentations and discussions on the following items:

• ATSDR's draft public health assessment on Evaluation of Potential Exposures to Contaminated Off-Site Groundwater from the Oak Ridge Reservation (USDOE) available for public comment July 6-Aug. 19
• Presentation by ORRHES member Susan Kaplan on her report, "Impacts on Oak Ridge Landowners of Off-site Releases to the Environment from the Y-12 Plant and Associated Long-term Stewardship Issues."
• ATSDR/ORRHES Web site update and demonstration.
• ORRHES will provide comments to ATSDR on the draft public health assessment Radionuclide Releases from White Oak Creek.

Members of the community are encouraged to attend and will have the opportunity to make comments from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m. and 4:45 to 5:00 p.m.

ORRHES, a federal advisory committee created in 1999, is comprised of a representative group of citizens who 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 on the two agencies' public health activities and research regarding the Oak Ridge Reservation site.

ORRHES members work with private citizens, advocacy groups, and state and federal agencies in the region and provide community members with opportunities 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, Marilyn Palmer Horton, toll-free at 1-888-422-8737 or by calling 404-498-1751. Environmental Health Scientist Dr. William Taylor also may be contacted in ATSDR's Oak Ridge Field Office at 865-220-0295. Callers should refer to the Oak Ridge site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.