After letting it sit empty for most of the Donald Trump administration, the Labor Department has restaffed a small advisory group that helps the Department of Labor process medical claims from workers sickened at U.S. nuclear-weapon sites.
The Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health advises the Labor Department’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation. Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta appointed 12 new members July 16, after allowing the board to go unstaffed after the terms of the previous members expired in February.
The members will serve two-year terms that expire July 15, 2020, a Labor spokesperson said by email Wednesday.
The new board members are slated to meet this fall, according to the group’s website.
A spokesperson for the board had no details on the meeting’s date, agenda or venue at deadline Wednesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The new members, grouped into three categories in accordance with federal regulation, are as follows.
Scientific Community:
John Dement, Duke University Medical Center
George Friedman-Jimenez, Bellevue Hospital Center, NYU School of Medicine
Marek Mikulski, University of Iowa
Kenneth Silver, East Tennessee State University
Medical Community:
Manijeh Berenji, Boston Medical Center
Victoria Cassano, Performance Medicine Consulting
Steven Markowitz, Queens College, CUNY School of Public Health
Carrie Redlich, Yale School of Medicine
Claimant community:
Kirk D. Domina, Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council
Ron Mahs, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, Local Union 46
Duronda Pope, United Steelworkers
Calin Tebay, Hanford Beryllium Program
Designated Federal Officer:
Douglas Fitzgerald, Department of Labor, director Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs.
New to the board are: Berenji, Mahs, Mikulski, and Mahs. The rest of the members return from the inaugural board convened in 2016.
The White House created the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health in June 2015, at Congress’ direction. The board is authorized through Dec. 19, 2024, and will automatically disband after that, unless Congress acts. Lawmakers have already extended the board’s sunset date once; the group was originally scheduled to disband in 2019.
