C
Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Definitions
ACBM: Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine
ACERER: Advisory Committee for Energy-Related Epidemiological Research
ATSDR: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
BEIR: Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (NRC)
Bias: Factors that influence the outcome of data collection, such as causing certain measurements to have a greater chance of being included than others
BSC: Board of Scientific Counselors
CAB: Citizens’ Advisory Board
CAREs: Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
Case-control study: Epidemiologic study in which people with disease and a similarly composed control group are compared in terms of exposures to a putative causative agent
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CEDR: Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (DOE)
CEHIC: Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control (CDC)
CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; CERCLA provides a federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment
CHE: Coalition for a Healthy Environment
CI (confidence interval): Interval estimate of an unknown parameter such as a risk; 95% CI, as an example, is constructed from a procedure that is theoretically successful in capturing the parameter of interest in 95% of its applications. Confidence limits are the end points of a confidence interval
CIC: Community Involvement Committee (LANL)
CLL: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
COWG: Communications and Outreach Workgroup (Oak Ridge)
DOE: U.S. Department of Energy
Dose: Short name for absorbed dose (1 Gy = 1 J/kg) and also for equivalent dose, effective dose, and weighted dose (1 Sv = 1 J/kg)
EEOICPA: Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Epidemiology: Study of the determinants of the frequency of disease in humans.The two main types of epidemiologic studies of chronic disease are cohort (or follow-up) studies and case-control studies
EPR: Electron paramagnetic resonance
ERDA: Energy Research and Development Administration
ERR: Estimated excess relative risk. The rate of disease in an exposed population divided by the rate of disease in an unexposed population minus 1.0.
ES&H: Office of Environment, Safety and Health (DOE)
ETTP: East Tennessee Technology Park
Exposure: Condition of having contact with a physical or chemical agent
FACA: Federal Advisory Committee Act
FWMSP: Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program (DOE)
HCHP: Hanford Community Health Project
HEDR: Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project
HEHF: Hanford Environmental Health Foundation.
HERB: Health-Related Energy Research Branch (NIOSH)
HES: Health Effects Subcommittee
HETA: Hazard Evaluation and Technical Assistance
HHE: Health Hazard Evaluation
HHES: Hanford Health Effects Subcommittee
HHIN: Hanford Health Information Network
HHS: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
HTDS: Hanford Thyroid Disease Study
I-131: Iodine-131
ICD: International Classification of Diseases
ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection: Independent inter-
national organization that provides recommendations and guidance on protection against ionizing radiation
IDA: Individual Dose Assessment Project (Hanford)
Incidence (also incidence rate): Rate of occurrence of a disease within a specified period of time, often expressed as a number of cases per 100,000 individuals per year
INL: Idaho National Laboratory
IOM: Institute of Medicine
Ionizing radiation: Radiation sufficiently energetic to dislodge electrons from an atom, thereby producing an ion pair; ionizing radiation includes X- and gamma radiation, electrons (beta radiation), alpha particles (helium nuclei), and heavier-charged atomic nuclei. Neutrons ionize indirectly by first colliding with components of atomic nuclei
LAHDRA: Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment
LANL: Los Alamos National Laboratory
LET: Linear energy transfer
Linear (L) model or relationship (also linear dose-effect relationship): A special case of the linear-quadratic model, with the quadratic coefficient equal to zero; this model expresses the effect (e.g., cancer, mutation) as proportional to dose (linear function of the dose)
Linear-quadratic (LQ) model (also linear-quadratic dose-effect relationship): This model expresses the effect (e.g., cancer) as the sum of two components, one proportional to the dose (linear term) and one proportional to the square of the dose (quadratic term). The linear term predominates at low doses; the quadratic term, at high doses
LLNL: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LNT model: Linear no-threshold dose-response for which any dose greater than zero has a positive probability of producing an effect (e.g., mutation, cancer); the probability is calculated either from the slope of a linear (L) model or from the limiting slope, as the dose approaches zero, of a linear-quadratic (LQ) model
LOAEL: Lowest-observed-adverse-effect level
MED: Manhattan Engineering District
Meta-analysis: Analysis of epidemiologic data from several studies based on data included in publications
Minimal risk level (MRL): Estimate of the daily human exposure to a hazardous substance that is likely to be without appreciable risk of adverse non-cancer health effects over a specified duration of exposure
MMP: Medical Monitoring Program
Model: Schematic description of a system, theory, or phenomenon that accounts
for its known or inferred properties and may be used for further study of its characteristics
Mortality (rate): Frequency at which people die from a disease (e.g., a specific cancer), often expressed as the number of deaths per 100,000 population per year
NAHH: National Alliance for Hispanic Health
NAS: National Academy of Sciences
NBS: National Bureau of Standards (now National Institute of Standards and Technology)
NCEH: National Center for Environmental Health
NCRP (National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements): U.S. council commissioned to formulate and disseminate information, guidance, and recommendations about radiation protection and measurements
NER: National Exposure Registry (ATSDR)
NIOSH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
NNMCAB: Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board
NOAEL: No-observed-adverse-effect level
NPCR: National Program of Cancer Registries (CDC)
NPL: National Priorities List; a list of national priorities among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories
NRC: National Research Council
NTS: Nevada Test Site
OEHS: Office of Epidemiology and Health Surveillance (DOE)
OERP: Occupational Energy Research Program (NIOSH)
OMB: Office of Management and Budget
OR (Odds ratio): the odds of being exposed among diseased persons divided by the odds of being exposed among nondiseased persons
ORAU: Oak Ridge Associated Universities
OREPA: Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance
ORERP: Offsite Radiation Exposure Review Project
ORNL: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ORO: Oak Ridge Operations Office
ORR: Oak Ridge Reservation
ORRHASP: Oak Ridge Reservation Health Agreement Steering Panel
ORRHES: Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee
ORRLOC: Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee
ORRSSAB: Oak Ridge Reservation Site Specific Advisory Board
OTA: Office of Technology Assessment
PCB: Polychlorinated biphenyl
PHA: Public Health Assessment
PHEP: Public Health Education Program
PHS: Public Health Statement; the first chapter of ATSDR’s Toxicological Profiles
PNNL: Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a contractor at the Hanford Site
Pooled analysis: An analysis of epidemiologic data from several studies based on original data from the studies
PSR: Physicians for Social Responsibility
RAC: Radiological Assessment Corporation (later, Risk Assessment Corporation)
Rad: A special unit of absorbed dose, now replaced by the SI unit gray; 1 rad = 0.01 Gy = 100 erg/g
Radiation: Energy emitted in the form of waves or particles by radioactive atoms as a result of radioactive decay or produced by artificial means, such as X-ray generators
Radiogenic: Caused by radiation
Radionuclide: Radioactive species of an atom characterized by the constitution of its nucleus
Rem (rad equivalent man): A special unit of dose equivalent, now replaced by the SI unit sievert; 1 rem = 0.01 Sv
REMS: Radiation Exposure Monitoring System (DOE)
RERP: Committee on the Department of Energy Radiation Epidemiological Research Programs (NRC)
RfD: Reference dose (DOE)
Risk: Chance of injury, loss, or detriment; a measure of the deleterious effects that may be expected as the result of an action or inaction
Risk assessment: Process by which the risks associated with an action or inaction are identified and quantified
Risk estimate: Increment of the incidence or mortality rate projected to occur in a specified exposed population per unit dose for a specified exposure regime and expression period
RL: Richland Operations Office (DOE)
SENES: Specialists in Energy, Nuclear and Environmental Studies
Sievert (Sv): Special name of the SI unit of dose equivalent; 1 Sv = 1 J/kg = 100 rem
SI units: International System of Units as defined by the General Conference of Weights and Measures in 1960; these are the base units, such as meter (m), kilogram (kg), second (s), and their combinations, which have special names
(e.g., the unit of energy 1 J = 1 kg m2/s2, or of absorbed dose 1 Gy = 1 J/kg = 1 m2/s2)
SPEERA: Secretarial Panel for the Evaluation of Epidemiological Research Activities (DOE)
SRS: Savannah River site
SSAB: Site-Specific Advisory Board (DOE)
Standardized morbidity ratio or standardized mortality rate (SMR): Rate (multiplied by 100) of mortality from a disease in the population being studied divided by the comparable rate in a standard population; ratio is similar to a relative risk times 100
TAG: Technical Assistance Grant
TCA: Trichloroethane
TCE: Trichloroethylene
TDH: Tennessee Department of Health
Threshold hypothesis: Assumption that no injury occurs below a specified dose
TSCA: Toxic Substances Control Act
TSP: Technical Steering Panel composed of independent scientists and members of the public created to oversee and direct HEDR
Uncertainty: Range of values within which the true value is estimated to lie; a best estimate of possible inaccuracy due to both random and systemic errors:
Random Errors: Errors that vary in a nonreproducible way around a limiting mean; these can be treated statistically by use of the laws of probability
Systemic Errors: Errors that are reproducible and tend to bias a result in one direction; their causes can be assigned, at least in principle, and they can have constant and variable components; generally, these errors cannot be treated statistically
UNSCEAR: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
X-rays: Penetrating electromagnetic radiation, usually produced by bombarding a metallic target with fast electrons in a high vacuum
YDI: Youth Development, Inc.
