NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE, N.W.,WASHINGTON, D.C. 20418
The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the governing board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of the members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This project was prepared under grant 200-91-0951 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Limited number of copies available from the Board on Radiation Effects Research, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20418
Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences . All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
COMMITTEE ON AN ASSESSMENT OF CDC RADIATION STUDIES
WILLIAM J. SCHULL (Chairman),
University of Texas, Houston, Texas
STEPHEN A. BENJAMIN,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
ANDRÉ BOUVILLE,
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
GEOFFREY G. EICHHOLZ,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
J. CHARLES JENNETT,
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
LEEKA I. KHEIFETS,
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California
JAMES E. MARTIN,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
CHRISTOPHER B. NELSON,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
HENRY D. ROYAL,
Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri
ROY E. SHORE,
New York University Medical Center, New York, New York
ROBERT G. THOMAS,
Argonne National Laboratory (ret.), Argonne, Illinois
HENRY N. WAGNER, Jr.,
The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes, Baltimore, Maryland
JAMES M. WALL,
The Christian Century, Chicago, Illinois
National Research Council Staff
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Study Director
MAURITA DOW-MASSEY, Project Assistant
DORIS E. TAYLOR, Staff Assistant
SPONSOR'S PROJECT OFFICER
JAMES M. SMITH,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
BOARD ON RADIATION EFFECTS RESEARCH
WARREN K. SINCLAIR (Chairman),
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (ret.), Bethesda, Maryland
DOUGLAS GRAHN,
Argonne National Laboratory (ret.), Madison, Indiana (member until June 30, 1994)
ERIC J. HALL,
Columbia University, New York, New York (member until June 30, 1994)
MAUREEN M. HENDERSON,
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
LEONARD S. LERMAN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
JOHN B. LITTLE,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
JONATHAN M. SAMET,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
WILLIAM J. SCHULL,
University of Texas, Houston, Texas (member as of July 1, 1994)
THOMAS S. TENFORDE,
Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, Washington
SUSAN S. WALLACE,
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont (member as of July 1, 1994)
H. RODNEY WITHERS,
University of California Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
National Research Council Staff
JOHN D. ZIMBRICK, Director
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Senior Program Officer
CHARLES W. EDINGTON, Director,
RERFP
LARRY H. TOBUREN, Senior Program Officer
CATHERINE S. BERKLEY, Administrative Associate
MAURITA DOW-MASSEY, Project Assistant
DORIS E. TAYLOR, Staff Assistant
LARA V. ADAMO, Project Assistant/Secretary (as of October 17, 1994)
COMMISSION ON LIFE SCIENCES
THOMAS D. POLLARD (Chairman),
Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland
BRUCE N. AMES,
University of California, Berkeley, California
JOHN C. BAILAR, III,
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
J. MICHAEL BISHOP,
University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, California
JOHN E. BURRIS,
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
MICHAEL T. CLEGG,
University of California, Riverside, California
GLENN A. CROSBY,
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
LEROY E. HOOD,
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
MARIAN E. KOSHLAND,
University of California, Berkeley, California
RICHARD E. LENSKI,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
EMIL A. PFITZER,
Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Nutley, New Jersey
MALCOLM C. PIKE,
University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
HENRY C. PITOT III,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
PAUL G. RISSER,
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
JONATHAN M. SAMET,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
HAROLD M. SCHMECK, Jr.,
Armonk, New York
CARLA J. SHATZ,
University of California, Berkeley, California
SUSAN S. TAYLOR,
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California
P. ROY VAGELOS,
Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey
JOHN L. VANDEBERG,
Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas
TORSTEN N. WIESEL,
Rockefeller University, New York, New York
National Research Council Staff
PAUL GILMAN, Executive Director
ALVIN G. LAZEN, Associate Executive Director
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PREFACE
The Committee on an Assessment of CDC Radiation Studies was directed to perform a task that is unusual for National Research Council (NRC) committees: to advise an agency (the Centers for Disease Control, CDC) about reports (on the Fernald Environmental Management Project, FEMP–formerly called the Feed Materials Production Center) that are almost completed but might change as a result of additional work by the preparer (Radiological Assessments Corporation, RAC) or as a result of the preparer's responses to external review. The NRC report that follows cannot be considered either an approval or disapproval of the final RAC reports, which have not been issued. Rather, like the committee's earlier report, Dose Reconstruction for the Fernald Nuclear Facility (National Research Council, 1992), this is a commentary on the current version of the RAC report. The need to comment arises from two circumstances: First, CDC is charged with evaluating human exposure in the vicinity of several nuclear facilities around the country, and the evaluation of FEMP could serve as a model for other studies; this committee 's comments might help to refine procedures for the performance of other studies that start in the near future. Second, there is considerable public concern about the Fernald nuclear facility and a need to accelerate the evaluation of the situation there. The need for expedited action accounts for this committee's undertaking to comment on draft reports, rather than waiting for the submission of final reports.
The committee members wish to thank the members of the NRC staff who worked with us, especially Doris Taylor and Maurita Dow-Massey for their preparation of several drafts of this report and for their help in the administration of the committee's work. Mrs. Kate Kelly is thanked for her editorial review of this report.
William J. Schull
Chairman