Work History Questions

DOE-STD-1187-2005

Work History Questions

Q. Due to security reasons, the job title cannot be provided. Is it acceptable to leave it

blank?

A. It is required to have some value here, so a generalization is recommended so the

field is not blank. This will give some indication of what the person was doing to

become identified as a beryllium-associated worker.

Q. The "Job Stop Date" is a required field but if these are current workers, when should

I leave this field blank (null) and when should I populate it?

A. If the worker is currently employed and is currently in the job that identified him/her

as a beryllium-associated worker, then this field is left blank (null), thus indicating the

person still performs this job. However, some sites have indicated that they plan to go

back in their archives and retrieve some older data (i.e., prior to January 7, 2002) and will

submit that to the Registry. The Registry staff is looking forward to this because the

more of these data that can be collected, the more robust the Registry will be. For these

retrospective records, this field will be populated as these workers quit these jobs that

qualified them as beryllium-associated or were moved to other jobs.

Q. Are sites required to retrieve retrospective work history data for beryllium workers?

A. According to the rule, the answer is no, although these data would increase the value

of the Registry and some sites have said they can do this easily and will do so.

Activities and Exposure Table Questions

Q. Again, security concerns arise with combining data from the DOE Activities and

Exposure table, particularly the fields Process, Operation, and Task. What should a site

do in this case?

A. Generalizations are recommended for the values in these fields that allow the

Registry to have data that are as detailed and complete as possible without breaching

security restrictions. Each site has to assess their own situation and develop a data

policy/procedure they are comfortable with, ensuring that security is not compromised.

Q. The Sample Number field can be traced to an individual. To protect confidentiality,

what should a site do?

A. Notice that this field is not required, but some sites asked/recommended that it be

included to make it easier to search samples for specific values or to answer questions

that may arise from these data. Most sites have procedures to maintain confidentiality of

sampled individuals. If a site needs to use some form of encryption, that is acceptable.

This field is there primarily for the site's use.