NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE, NW.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 contract 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, DC 20418
Copyright 1995 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
NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Editor
SPONSOR’S PROJECT OFFICER
JAMES M. SMITH,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
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)
MAUREEN M. HENDERSON,
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the 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 Health Science Center, 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
CHARLES W. EDINGTON, Director, RERFP
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Senior Program Officer
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
SUSAN E. LEEMAN,
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
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.,
North Chatham, Massachusetts
CARLA J. SHATZ,
University of California Berkeley, California
SUSAN S. TAYLOR,
University of California at 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
National Research Council Staff
PAUL GILMAN, Executive Director
ALVIN G. LAZEN, Associate Executive Director
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, non-profit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
PREFACE
The National Research Council was called on to evaluate the quality, completeness, and results of the reconstruction of historic radiation doses received by people residing in the vicinity of the Hanford Nuclear Facility as a result of releases from that facility in the years 1944-1992. This evaluation, by the Committee on an Assessment of CDC Radiation Studies in the National Research Council’s Board on Radiation Effects Research, has been a continuing process, and the committee has previously reviewed and commented on the feasibility studies undertaken before the final reports with which it is now concerned. Because the reports are apt to undergo further changes, the present commentary cannot be construed as either an approval or a disapproval of the eventual publications. However, a review of the reports at this stage in their development seems both timely and essential to ensuring the public and scientific acceptability of the thyroid-disease study now in its feasibility stage and of future studies of the health effects of exposure to the radioactive releases stemming from the operation of the Hanford Nuclear Facility. The credibility of the latter studies hinges ultimately on the quality of the dose estimates; the estimates must be as accurate and reliable as circumstances permit and should be based on the proper radiation and tissue-weighting factors.
The committee members wish to thank the many people who have contributed to their understanding of the situation and to their work. James M. Smith and Charles Miller of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control, provided a valuable perspective on the activities of the Radiation Studies Branch and useful historical insights for the committee’s study. John Till, chairman of the Technical Steering Panel for the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) project, and Bruce Napier, Dillard Shipler, William Farris, and their colleagues at the Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories were generous with their time and thorough in expressing the scientific and administrative issues involved in implementing the HEDR project. We are indebted to the members of the public who expressed to us their expectations for and concerns with the project. We also thank the National Research