Tab J

                Staff Memo--Public Outreach Options

               DISCLAIMER

The following is a staff memorandum or other working document 
prepared for the members of the Advisory Committee on Human 
Radiation Experiments.  It should not be construed as representing 
the final conclusions of fact or interpretation of the issues. All 
staff memoranda are subject to revision based on further information 
and analysis. For conclusions and recommendations of the Advisory 
Committee, readers are advised to consult the Final Report to be 
published in 1995.

                          PUBLIC OUTREACH

                           May 13, 1994

INTRODUCTION

     This memo, in response to the Committee's request at the initial 
meeting that the Staff prepare a memo on outreach, outlines 
alternatives for public outreach by the Committee. We recommend that 
the Committee form a subcommittee to work with staff on developing 
specifics (which, of course, may include alternatives or modifications 
to this proposal).

GOAL

     Our outreach strategy, subject to the Committee's approval, is 
intended to insure that the Committee has access to all information 
material to its concerns that may be held by groups and individual 
members of the public and to make sure the public has adequate access 
to the Committee to make its concerns known.

METHODS

Identification

     Since the establishment of the Committee, the staff has been 
approached by many groups and individuals desiring to share 
information.  Staff has met with some of them and where appropriate 
recommended that they make presentations to the Committee. We cannot, 
of course, depend on all those groups and individuals who have reason 
to contact the Committee to find us. Therefore, the staff proposes an 
aggressive effort to reach the public with the following options: 
     1) With the Committee's help, staff will identify interested 
groups and individuals so that the Committee can consider where we 
should invest our resources. This will be done in a variety of ways 
including reviewing media coverage, checking the interagency working 
group's helpline records, talking to the public affairs officers of 
the relevant agencies, checking with groups or reviewing the records 
of groups that have carried out tasks similar to ours, possibly 
advertising in appropriate journals, and surveying Committee members 
and staff. The universe of groups and individuals is quite large. 
Since the last meeting staff has sought to identify groups and 
individuals that might be interested in the work of the Committee. 
In addition to information from the interagency helpline, we have 
obtained or ale obtaining:
     a.   An HHS list of groups and individuals who have previously 
commented or shown interest in human subjects research.
     b.   A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and 
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR) list of 
invitees and participants at a February, 1994, Workshop on Community, 
Tribal and Labor Involvement in Public Health Service Activities at 
Department of Energy Sites. (The list contains several hundred names.)
     c.   A Veterans Administration list of chartered veterans' 
groups.
     d.   A list of persons who have written to Survivors of Medical 
Radiation Experiments.
     e.   A list provided by Physicians for Social Responsibility.
     2) Staff suggests that the subcommittee determine what the scope 
and method of outreach should be. Then the staff, together with the 
subcommittee, will develop for example, a model letter (or letters) 
to solicit participation. As responses come in staff will see that 
information is channeled to the Committee and research teams as 
appropriate, that requests for information are responded to, that 
public comments are scheduled, and so on.

Experts
     In response to an initiative by Committee members, staff 
will work with the subcommittee to organize and conduct for the 
Committee an expert outreach in which members of each discipline 
represented on the Committee and staff contact colleagues and 
encourage them to provide the Committee with information on an 
ongoing basis. Once the subcommittee determines the general 
principles under which colleagues will be invited to exchange 
information with the Committee, the staff will coordinate this 
effort. These principles are needed, among other things, to focus 
outreach efforts and to ensure they are consistent with the 
Committee's charter and goals. One such principle might be that 
the Committee should be aware of diverse perspectives on human 
radiation experimentation, some of which may fall outside what is 
generally considered to be the technical expertise of the academic 
or professional group being addressed. Another principle might be 
that the Committee should have access to as much information as 
possible on those cases on which it decides to concentrate. Model 
letters have been provided by Committee and staff members. Working 
with these drafts in consultation with the subcommittee, the staff 
will develop a letter or letters to be sent to relevant academics 
and professionals before the next Committee meeting. Responses will 
be handled in a similar fashion to those received through the public 
outreach.

Students

     It has been suggested by a Committee member that his 
students participate in the Committee's work. This suggestion has 
obvious potential benefits for both the Committee and students. The 
subcommittee might want to consider questions like what would 
constitute an appropriate and mutually beneficial student 
involvement. Staff would be happy to work with the subcommittee to 
determine what kinds of tasks might be done by student volunteers 
working on or off site.

Internet

     For a minimal cost the Committee can hook up to the Internet 
and exchange information with the public, or at least that percentage 
of the public with access. One obvious advantage of the Internet is 
that it would provide the Committee and staff instant communication 
with institutional subscribers such as universities and hospitals.

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     There are at least three ways in which the Committee can use 
Internet as part of its outreach effort: Gopher servers, Use Net and 
E-Mail.

     1) Gopher servers are electronic archives. Once we set one up, 
anyone on the Internet, including schools and libraries, will be 
able to find it on a menu and access it. We can make available 
on-line anything that goes into our reading room --e.g. documents 
related to cases, documents related to ethical and scientific 
standards, the Committee charter, etc. 
     2) Use Net enables anyone on the Internet to connect and 
download documents to the Committee. Committee members and staff will 
also be able to use the news group we set up under Use Net to direct 
questions to the 15 to 20 million members of the public who have 
access to the Internet. (We have not determined whether this would 
count as public comment under FACA.)
     3) E-Mail will make communications more efficient between 
Committee members, Committee and staff, and between Committee-staff 
and the public.

     We propose that the staff archivist and other staff members 
work with the subcommittee on this matter.

Audio and video tapes

     Along with the regular flow of documents, we suggest making 
audio tapes of Committee meetings available in the reading room at 
1726 M Street and perhaps at other locations so that scholars and 
other interested members of the public can listen to them. Committee 
members might also want to consider videotaping meetings as an 
educational tool for their own teaching and perhaps as a larger
educational outreach to school systems--both high school civics 
programs and universities. The tapes could be used in government, 
political science, sociology of science, ethics, and other programs. 
To prepare tapes for distribution would require working with 
independent producers to do the actual taping, edit the tapes, 
develop a series format, and so on.

Media Relations

     Under the Committee's direction staff will develop a coordinated 
strategy to spread the word about the Committee's work and its openness 
to public participation.

     With respect to the general print news media and electronic news 
media, staff has begun developing relationships with print and 
television reporters at both the national and regional level, as well 
as with independent documentary makers. We think there is virtue in 
encouraging coverage of both the Committees public hearings and other 
activities as representative of democracy at work, and of the specific 
cases the Committee identifies for study.

     Another option is talk TV and talk radio. There is, of course, 
a very diverse group of programs in this category. Staff will study 
the marketplace and make recommendations to the Committee about which 
programs seem appropriate for appearances. The advantage of this format 
is that Committee members, should they choose to make appearances, will 
be able to elaborate on aspects of the Committee's work that they 
believe have been inadequately explained to the public.

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Public Appearances and press contracts

     As a general matter, staff suggests a principle for public 
statements by Committee and staff members: Committee debates on 
unresolved issues should not be conducted in the press. Staff suggests 
that the Committee make this principle policy. Staff further recommends 
that Committee members coordinate with the Committee chair, the 
executive director or the director of communications when they speak to 
the press or in public about Committee business.    We note that there 
have already been requests for appearances before groups including 
Congress, the American Nuclear Society, representatives of radiation
victims, and at conferences on openness in government and on research 
ethics.
     We also recommend that staff be permitted to talk to the press 
and at public fora, in their area(s) of expertise, and subject to 
approval by the Committee Chair, executive director, or director 
communications. In addition to the principle proposed above, we 
propose the following guidelines for speaking engagements:

     1) Staff will accept speaking engagements based on standard 
considerations of appropriateness, scheduling, travel costs, etc.;
     2) In general, factual presentations of work the Committee has 
completed are appropriate and are to be encouraged before interested 
groups, especially those that may have something to contribute.


























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