Department of Health and Human Services

Responsibilities of the N.C. TDI Community Health Study Advisory Panel

Purpose

The purpose of the North Carolina Toluene Diisocyanate Advisory Panel (hereafter referred to as “advisory panel”) is two-fold. The primary role of the advisory panel is to ensure that all elements of the study are clearly communicated to stakeholders. Interested stakeholders may include, but are not limited to, individual participants, community members, TDI manufacturing and emitting industries and their respective trade organizations, environmental advocacy groups, academia, and local, state, and federal public health and environmental agencies. Facilitating effective communication is the most important function of the advisory panel. To further the cause of effective and transparent communication, a summary of the minutes (standardized format) will be kept for all advisory panel meetings and these minutes will be provided to each panel member as well as made public. The goal is to encourage open dialogue between all stakeholders and ensure adequate public record keeping of this exchange.

The secondary purpose of the advisory panel is to provide direction to NCDHHS and ATSDR during the conduct of the study if situations arise that have not been addressed or adequately predicted in the study design and protocol. It is reasonable to anticipate that unforeseen issues may arise in a project of this complexity and duration. In circumstances where the study team encounters problems with the conduct of the study that are not addressed in the study protocol, the panel will provide a reasonable and more local view of how to handle these unforeseen issues. However, in these situations, the panel will remain in an advisory capacity and their concerns and suggestions will help guide NCDHHS and ATSDR in formulating an appropriate response. There will be no voting on specific issues to either a) gain consensus among panel members, or b) direct the agencies in how they must respond.

Requirements

The advisory panel will convene periodically for in-person meetings. Each meeting will last no longer than one full working day and will follow a preset agenda that will be disseminated 5 working days prior to the meeting. Topics on the meeting agenda may include the study’s progress to date, anticipated work prior to the next advisory panel, and any significant findings or issues related to the study’s conduct that need to be addressed. Other topics will be addressed on an as needed basis and may include community and participant communications, media involvement, reviewing findings and reports, and the best methods for disseminating this information to different groups. All advisory panel members are expected to actively participate in the meetings. If a panel member can not attend a meeting, they can designate an individual to attend in their absence. Because the primary role of the advisory panel is to facilitate communication with all stakeholders, panel members are expected to review the entire project communication plan and discuss the stepwise implementation of this plan during the study period.

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Page last updated on April 04, 2011