NIOSH testimony on uranium enrichment plant, Piketon, Ohio before the Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation and Federal Services, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, by J. R. Froines, July 21, 1980

Testimony concerned an investigation conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) into the safety hazards at a uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. Since the 1950s research has been conducted by NIOSH into the exposure of workers to radon daughter products in uranium mining and milling operations. This work first identified the lung cancer problem among American uranium miners and had aided in setting the standard for radon-daughter exposure in uranium mines. Field methods for the measurement of radon daughters, procedures for engineering controls, and medical monitoring procedures for the diagnosis of lung cancer also resulted from the research. In June of 1979 NIOSH received a request to determine whether workers at the uranium enrichment facility operated by the Good Year Atomic Corporation in Piketon had suffered from radiation-exposure effects. The initial walk through survey indicated that a study could be made of this facility. NIOSH began a retrospective cohort mortality study and industrial-hygiene study of the worker population. NIOSH has assembled a master file of all present and former employees at this site. The epidemiologic study was expected to take 1 to 2 years to complete. NIOSH was also preparing to conduct an industrial-hygiene investigation at the site to evaluate exposures to chemical and physical agents