DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service Centers for Disease Control And Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 1090 Tusculum Avenue Cincinnati OH 45226-1998 November 20, 2017 HHE 2018-0022 Ms. Julie Reese Senior Environmental Safety Specialist City of Cincinnati 800 Central Avenue, Suite 100 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Dear Ms. Reese: This letter is in response to a health hazard evaluation (HHE) request received by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health from the City of Cincinnati. The request concerned a perceived excess of cancers among Cincinnati Police Department District 5 employees. This letter summarizes our recent visit to the Cincinnati Police Department District 5 headquarters on November 15, 2017. During the visit, we met with employer and employee representatives to discuss the HHE request and conducted a walk-through survey of the District 5 headquarters. Representatives from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 69, Cincinnati Police Department (including District 5 employees), City of Cincinnati Health Department, and City of Cincinnati Risk Management, Facilities, and Environment and Sustainability departments participated in the meeting. During the meeting, we gave a brief overview of the HHE program. Meeting participants provided more details about the concerns in the request. We also discussed our typical approach to requests concerning a perceived excess of cancers, including the types of information necessary to complete the evaluation. We learned that approximately 30 District 5 employees had recently been relocated to a temporary location. Most of the relocated employees had worked primarily in the District 5 headquarters building. This included approximately 5–7 civilian employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). We requested contact information for an AFSCME representative. In order to investigate these concerns and perform this HHE, we request the following information about each current or past District 5 employee diagnosed with cancer since January 1, 2014: • Type of cancer Page 2 – Ms. Julie Reese • • • • • • • • Month and year of cancer diagnosis (or age at cancer diagnosis) Date of birth Sex Race Alive or deceased Job title(s) Dates of working in District 5 Dates of working in the Cincinnati Police Department It is possible that you will not be able to obtain all this information for each affected employee. However, even if this is the case, please send this information to the fullest extent possible to us by December 8, 2017. We will send a list of questions about the District 5 headquarters building to the facilities manager by e-mail. If we need to return to the facility, we will contact you to make those arrangements. When we complete our evaluation, we will send you a final report. You may receive a short survey from our office. We are interested in your thoughts about our evaluation so far, and we encourage you to complete the survey. Thank you for your cooperation with this ongoing evaluation. We encourage you to share this letter with your employees. If you have questions, please contact Sophia Chiu at (513) 841-4289 or yjx9@cdc.gov, Gregory Burr at (513) 841-4582 or gab1@cdc.gov, or Leonard Zwack at yjg5@cdc.gov or (513) 841-4389. Sincerely yours, signed by Sophia K. Sophia K. Chiu - Digitally Chiu -S (Affiliate) Date: 2017.11.20 10:03:48 S (Affiliate) -05'00' Sophia Chiu, MD, MPH Medical Officer Digitally signed by Gregory A. Burr Gregory A. Burr -S -SDate: 2017.11.20 11:08:32 -05'00' Gregory Burr, CIH Industrial Hygiene Team Leader Digitally signed by Leonard M. Zwack -S (Affiliate) Date: 2017.11.20 10:18:46 -05'00' Leonard Zwack, ScD Industrial Hygiene Team Leader Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies Page 3 – Ms. Julie Reese cc: Sergeant Daniel Hils, President, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 69 Assistant Chief Terri Theetge, Cincinnati Police Department Captain Bridget Bardua, District 5 Commander, Cincinnati Police Department Dr. Marilyn Crumpton, Interim Health Commissioner, City of Cincinnati Ms. Deborah Allison, Risk Manager, City of Cincinnati Mr. Larry Falkin, Director, Office of Environment and Sustainability, City of Cincinnati Ms. Jamie Accurso, Facilities Manager, Facility Management, City of Cincinnati