Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program

Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309096103
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was set up by Congress in 1990 to compensate people who have been diagnosed with specified cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to nuclear-weapons tests at various U.S. test sites. Eligible claimants include civilian onsite participants, downwinders who lived in areas currently designated by RECA, and uranium workers and ore transporters who meet specified residence or exposure criteria. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the screening, education, and referral services program for RECA populations, asked the National Academies to review its program and assess whether new scientific information could be used to improve its program and determine if additional populations or geographic areas should be covered under RECA. The report recommends Congress should establish a new science-based process using a method called "probability of causation/assigned share" (PC/AS) to determine eligibility for compensation. Because fallout may have been higher for people outside RECA-designated areas, the new PC/AS process should apply to all residents of the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas US territories who have been diagnosed with specific RECA-compensable diseases and who may have been exposed, even in utero, to radiation from U.S. nuclear-weapons testing fallout. However, because the risks of radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concern in RECA populations, in most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radioactive fallout was a substantial contributing cause of cancer.

Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program

Assessment of the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309096103
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was set up by Congress in 1990 to compensate people who have been diagnosed with specified cancers and chronic diseases that could have resulted from exposure to nuclear-weapons tests at various U.S. test sites. Eligible claimants include civilian onsite participants, downwinders who lived in areas currently designated by RECA, and uranium workers and ore transporters who meet specified residence or exposure criteria. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the screening, education, and referral services program for RECA populations, asked the National Academies to review its program and assess whether new scientific information could be used to improve its program and determine if additional populations or geographic areas should be covered under RECA. The report recommends Congress should establish a new science-based process using a method called "probability of causation/assigned share" (PC/AS) to determine eligibility for compensation. Because fallout may have been higher for people outside RECA-designated areas, the new PC/AS process should apply to all residents of the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and overseas US territories who have been diagnosed with specific RECA-compensable diseases and who may have been exposed, even in utero, to radiation from U.S. nuclear-weapons testing fallout. However, because the risks of radiation-induced disease are generally low at the exposure levels of concern in RECA populations, in most cases it is unlikely that exposure to radioactive fallout was a substantial contributing cause of cancer.

Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix Database

Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix Database PDF Author: Committee on the Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix (SEM) Database
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309268702
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 135

Get Book Here

Book Description
Beginning with the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, the United States continued to build nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Thousands of people mined and milled uranium, conducted research on nuclear warfare, or worked in nuclear munitions factories around the country from the 1940s through the 1980s. Such work continues today, albeit to a smaller extent. The Department of Energy (DOE) is now responsible for overseeing those sites and facilities, many of which were, and continue to be, run by government contractors. The materials used at those sites were varied and ranged from the benign to the toxic and highly radioactive. Workers at DOE facilities often did not know the identity of the materials with which they worked and often were unaware of health risks related to their use. In many instances, the work was considered top secret, and employees were cautioned not to reveal any work-related information to family or others. Workers could be exposed to both radioactive and nonradioactive toxic substances for weeks or even years. Consequently, some of the workers have developed health problems and continue to have concerns about potential health effects of their exposures to occupational hazards during their employment in the nuclear weapons industry. In response to the concerns expressed by workers and their representatives, DOL asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to review the SEM database and its use of a particular database, Haz-Map, as the source of its toxic substance-occupational disease links. Accordingly, this IOM consensus report reflects careful consideration of its charge by the committee, and describes the strengths and shortcomings of both. To complete its task, IOM formed an ad hoc committee of experts in occupational medicine, toxicology, epidemiology, industrial hygiene, public health, and biostatistics to conduct an 18-month study to review the scientific rigor of the SEM database. The committee held two public meetings at which it heard from DOL Division of Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) representatives, the DOL contractor that developed the SEM database, the developer of the Haz-Map database, DOE worker advocacy groups, and several individual workers. The committee also submitted written questions to DOL to seek clarification of specific issues and received written responses from DEEOIC. The committee's report considers both the strengths and weaknesses of the SEM and the Haz-Map databases, recognizing that the latter was developed first and for a different purpose. The committee then discusses its findings and recommends improvements that could be made in both databases with a focus on enhancing the usability of SEM for both DOL claims examiners and for former DOE workers and their representatives. Review of the Department of Labor's Site Exposure Matrix Database summarizes the committee's findings.

The Navajo People and Uranium Mining

The Navajo People and Uranium Mining PDF Author: Doug Brugge
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826337795
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on statements given to the Navajo Uranium Miner Oral History and Photography Project, this revealing book assesses the effects of uranium mining on the reservation beginning in the 1940s.

Downwind

Downwind PDF Author: Sarah Alisabeth Fox
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803269498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Downwind is an unflinching tale of the atomic West that reveals the intentional disregard for human and animal life through nuclear testing by the federal government and uranium extraction by mining corporations during and after the Cold War. Sarah Alisabeth Fox highlights the personal cost of nuclear testing and uranium extraction in the American West through extensive interviews with “downwinders,” the Native American and non-Native residents of the Great Basin region affected by nuclear environmental contamination and nuclear-testing fallout. These downwinders tell tales of communities ravaged by cancer epidemics, farmers and ranchers economically ruined by massive crop and animal deaths, and Native miners working in dangerous conditions without proper safety equipment so that the government could surreptitiously study the effects of radiation on humans. In chilling detail Downwind brings to light the stories and concerns of these groups whose voices have been silenced and marginalized for decades in the name of “patriotism” and “national security.” With the renewed boom in mining in the American West, Fox’s look at this hidden history, unearthed from years of field interviews, archival research, and epidemiological studies, is a must-read for every American concerned about the fate of our western lands and communities.

Mining and Selling Radium and Uranium

Mining and Selling Radium and Uranium PDF Author: Roger F. Robison
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319118307
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
Presented here is the story of the mining and sale of uranium and radium ore through biographical vignettes, chemistry, physics, geology, geography, occupational health, medical utilization, environmental safety and industrial history. Included are the people and places involved over the course of over 90 years of interconnected mining and sale of radium and uranium, finally ending in 1991 with the abandonment of radium paint and medical devices, Soviet nuclear parity, and the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act: Program Status

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act: Program Status PDF Author: Paul L. Jones
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422398074
Category : Nuclear weapons testing victims
Languages : en
Pages : 16

Get Book Here

Book Description
This report updates information on DOJ's administration of RECA including the outcome of the claims adjudication process, including the number and status of claims approved, denied, and pending since RECP began in April 1992; average processing time for claims; and RECP's current estimates of the number of future claims to be paid from the RECA Trust Fund, associated funding requirements, and RECP administrative costs.

Nature at War

Nature at War PDF Author: Thomas Robertson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108419763
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Get Book Here

Book Description
"World War II was the largest and most destructive conflict in human history. It was an existential struggle that pitted irreconcilable political systems and ideologies against one another across the globe in a decade of violence unlike any other. There is little doubt today that the United States had to engage in the fighting, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The conflict was, in the words of historians Allan Millett and Williamson Murray, "a war to be won." As the world's largest industrial power, the United States put forth a supreme effort to produce the weapons, munitions, and military formations essential to achieving victory. When the war finally ended, the finale signaled by atomic mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, upwards of 60 million people had perished in the inferno. Of course, the human toll represented only part of the devastation; global environments also suffered greatly. The growth and devastation of the Second World War significantly changed American landscapes as well. The war created or significantly expanded a number of industries, put land to new uses, spurred urbanization, and left a legacy of pollution that would in time create a new term: Superfund site"--

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1981

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1981 PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government liability
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Get Book Here

Book Description


If You Poison Us

If You Poison Us PDF Author: Peter H. Eichstaedt
Publisher: Museum of NM Press/Red Crane Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The untold story of the Native Americans who were the patriotic but unwitting victims of America's quest for nuclear superiority during the Cold War." Stewart L. Udall, former Secretary of the Interior (from the back cover).

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1981: Hearings held October 27, 1981

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1981: Hearings held October 27, 1981 PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government liability
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description