ETSU faculty member to serve on advisory board for U.S. Secretary of Labor

Dr. Ken Silver, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health, will serve on the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health, which was recently established by President Barack Obama pursuant to congressional legislation adopted in December 2014. The group will advise the U.S. Secretary of Labor on technical issues related to the government’s compensation program for sick nuclear workers.

The Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs provides compensation and medical benefits to nuclear weapons workers who were diagnosed with medical conditions related to exposures at covered nuclear facilities.

Silver is especially interested in the board’s work on past exposures.  “We’ll be seeking systemic solutions to the problems that claimants with occupational illnesses face when trying to document exposures in the past,” Silver explained. “We’ll translate concerns into advice and recommendations.”

Silver is one of 15 members named to the advisory board. The group’s first meeting is set for April 26-28 in Washington D.C.

Silver has spent much of his career focused on occupational health issues for underserved populations. He spent years researching the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where the United States conducts classified work related to the design of nuclear weapons. In 1999, he set aside his dissertation on the topic to help the families of those individuals impacted by working at the facility. He has since completed his dissertation and authored several scholarly articles on the topic. 

Another east Tennessee representative on the board is Garry Whitley of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council’s Worker Health Protection Program in Oak Ridge.