ADVISORY BOARD ON RADIATION AND WORKER HEALTH National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Review of NIOSH Site Profile for Bethlehem Steel Plant, Lackawanna, NY Contract No. 200-2004-03805 Task Order No. 1 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 Prepared by S. Cohen & Associates 6858 Old Dominion Drive, Suite 301 McLean, Virginia 22101 Saliant, Inc. 5579 Catholic Church Road Jefferson, Maryland 21755 October 2004 Effective Date: Revision No. Document No. Page No. October 14, 2004 0 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 2 of 87 S. Cohen & Associates: Document No. SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 Technical Support for the Advisory Board on Effective Date: Radiation & Worker Health Review of October 14, 2004 NIOSH Dose Reconstruction Program Revision No. 0 REVIEW OF NIOSH SITE PROFILE FOR BETHLEHEM STEEL PLANT, Page 2 of 87 LACKAWANNA, NY Supersedes: Task Manager: ____________________________ N/A Joseph Fitzgerald Date: October 14, 2004____ Project Manager: __________________________ John Mauro Date: October 14, 2004____ Effective Date: Revision No. Document No. Page No. October 14, 2004 0 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 3 of 87 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 5 Results................................................................................................................................. 5 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 7 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................... 9 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 10 2.0 ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND METHOD.................................................................. 12 2.1 Objective 1: Completeness of Data Sources........................................................ 12 2.2 Objective 2: Technical Accuracy......................................................................... 12 2.3 Objective 3: Adequacy of Data............................................................................ 12 2.4 Objective 4: Consistency Among Site Profiles.................................................... 13 2.5 Objective 5: Regulatory Compliance................................................................... 13 3.0 FINDINGS........................................................................................................................ 15 3.1 Finding 1 ............................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Finding 2 ............................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Finding 3 ............................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Finding 4 ............................................................................................................... 20 3.5 Finding 5 ............................................................................................................... 22 3.6 Finding 6 ............................................................................................................... 24 3.7 Finding 7 ............................................................................................................... 25 3.8 Finding 8 ............................................................................................................... 29 4.0 OBSERVATIONS ............................................................................................................ 33 4.1 Observation 1........................................................................................................ 33 4.2 Observation 2........................................................................................................ 33 4.3 Observation 3........................................................................................................ 35 4.4 Observation 4........................................................................................................ 36 4.5 Observation 5........................................................................................................ 38 4.6 Observation 6........................................................................................................ 39 4.7 Observation 7........................................................................................................ 39 5.0 PROCEDURAL CONFORMANCE ................................................................................ 40 5.1 Procedural Conformance Issue 1 .......................................................................... 40 5.2 Procedural Conformance Issue 2 .......................................................................... 41 5.3 Procedural Conformance Issue 3 .......................................................................... 44 6.0 STRENGTHS ................................................................................................................... 46 7.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 47 Effective Date: Revision No. Document No. Page No. October 14, 2004 0 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 4 of 87 ATTACHMENTS Attachment 1: Conference Call with NIOSH and SC&A Attachment 2: Bethlehem Steel Questions Submitted to NIOSH Attachment 3: Summary of Site Expert Interviews Attachment 4: Statistical Approach Regarding Analysis of Air Concentration Data Effective Date: Revision No. Document No. Page No. October 14, 2004 0 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 5 of 87 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY S. Cohen and Associates (SC&A) evaluated the ORAUT-TKBS-0001, Technical Basis Document for Development of an Exposure Matrix for Bethlehem Steel Corporation (Bloom 2004) and OCAS-TIB-009, Estimation of Ingestion Intakes (OCAS 2004) prepared by Oak Ridge Associate Universities (ORAU) and approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The evaluation focused on the completeness, technical accuracy, adequacy of data, and compliance with stated objectives, as stipulated in SC&A Standard Operating Procedure for Performing Site Profile Reviews approved by the Advisory Board on March 18, 2004. (A fifth objective, “consistency among various site profiles,” cannot be addressed until more reviews are completed.) The NIOSH technical basis documents (TBDs), which together constitute the NIOSH site profiles for specific Department of Energy and Atomic Weapons Employer sites, are designed to support the conduct of individual dose reconstructions under the Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. This is accomplished by compiling and analyzing data such as that related to facility operations and processes over time, radiological source term characterization, chemical and physical forms of the radionuclides, historic workplace conditions and practices, and incidents and accidents involving potential exposures. As the Advisory Board’s support contractor, SC&A has been charged with independently evaluating the approach taken in NIOSH site profiles (encompassing technical basis documents and supporting technical information bulletins as they apply to the TBDs) to gauge their adequacy, completeness, and validity. This information will be used by the Advisory Board to advise the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the “scientific validity and quality” of dose reconstruction efforts performed. RESULTS The Bethlehem Steel site profile has clear strengths, including its focus on inhalation dose, the use of claimant-favorable solubility class for the respiratory tract, and the use of a minimum dose estimate to expedite favorable compensation claims. The decision to use operational air concentration data from the Simonds Saw and Steel (Simonds) plant to attempt to construct a maximum dose estimate for rolling days was also appropriate. NIOSH also took worker and site expert feedback into account by including an ingestion model in Revision 1 of ORAUT-TKBS- 0001. However, this evaluation indicates that the site profile is not sufficiently claimant favorable and scientifically sound on several important points. NIOSH and ORAU have applied the triangular distribution to various internal exposure scenarios based on field characterization data and published dose rates for uranium. Dose estimates include dose from inhalation, ingestion, submersion, electron exposure (shallow dose), photon exposure (deep dose), and dose from diagnostic x-rays. Air monitoring data were subdivided into either lower bound or upper bound estimates, which were in turn used to calculate internal inhalation dose. The intent of the profile was to make conservative assumptions that were claimant favorable and technically robust. Effective Date: Revision No. Document No. Page No. October 14, 2004 0 SCA-TR-TASK1-0001 6 of 87 Despite the intent to adopt a conservative approach in the Bethlehem Steel site profile, the document is incomplete or technically inappropriate on several accounts. SC&A identified technical issues regarding statistical approach, lack of actual long-term breathing zone data, lack of conservatism in the TBD as compared to a previously published technical information bulletin (ORAUT-OTIB-0004), intake assumptions, exposure duration, and conditions that, either individually or in combination, may substantially influence the outcome of dose reconstruction. Dose reconstruction