Evaluation of Guidelines for Exposures to Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (1999) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 16-24
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From page 16... ...
was initiated in response to a congressional directive that included the following: The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of Sciences to investigate and report on He scientific bases for Me public recommendations of EPA with respect to indoor radon and other naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM)
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From page 17... ...
17 Exposures to naturally occurring radionuclides resulting from human activities that alter the natural environment can, to some degree, be subjected to regulatory control. The general concern of this study is the regulation of exposures to technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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From page 18... ...
. In particular, the extensive information on the health risks from exposure to the important naturally occurring materials radium, thorium, uranium, and radon, based on human and animal studies, has been reviewed and evaluated, for example, by the BEIR IV Committee (National Research Council 1988)
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From page 19... ...
to refer to the materials of concern in this study. The committee defines this term as follows: Technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials are any naturally occurring radioactive materials not subject to regulation under the Atomic Energy Act whose radionuclide concentrations or potential for human exposure have been increased above levels encountered in the natural state by human activities.
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From page 20... ...
Thus, the concern about guidelines for TENORM that led to this study arises from the definitions of radioactive materials in the Atomic Energy Act and the much greater attention that has been given to the regulation of radioactive materials from the nuclear fuel cycle. However, the distinction between naturally occurring radionuclides associated with the nuclear fuel cycle and naturally occurring radionuclides associated with other activities is artificial with regard to protection of human health and the environment in that the risks posed by a given radiation exposure do not depend on the source of the radioactive material.
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From page 21... ...
The question of which guidance represents EPA's current views on radiation protection of the public is obviously important in comparing EPA guidelines for TENORM with guidelines developed by other organizations. Second, some EPA guidelines for specific exposure situations involving TENORM are in the form of legally enforceable regulations that were
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From page 22... ...
Third, for some important exposure situations, such as management and disposal of waste that contains TENORM except waste arising from treatment of drinking water, EPA has not published any guidelines, and the committee had to infer EPA's preferred approach to regulation on the basis of existing or proposed guidelines for similar exposure situations. Fourth, no EPA regulation or set of regulations applies to all potentially important sources of exposure to TENORM other than indoor radon.
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From page 23... ...
STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT as follows. The remaining chapters in this report are organized into three groups, Chapters 2-6 provide background information that is important for understanding and evaluating the various guidelines for TENORM: information on characteristics of naturally occulting radionuclides and natural background radiation, important sources of TENORM, the role of exposure pathway and dose or risk assessments in providing a technical basis for radiation standards, the basic judgments involved in developing radiation standards for any exposure situation, and the responsibilities of the regulatory and advisory organizations whose guidelines for TENORM have been considered in this study.
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From page 24... ...
Chapter 11 mainly presents summary discussions on the question of whether the differences between EPA and other guidelines for TENORM have a scientific and technical basis, specific ways in which the technical approaches to risk assessment of radionuclides currently used by the EPA and other organizations differ and whether the differences have been important in developing guidelines for TENORM, and specific ways in which the differences between EPA and other guidelines for TENORM are based on policies related to risk management, rather than scientific and technical issues. Chapter 12 presents some summary conclusions and recommendations developed by the committee during the course of this study.
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