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FOR RELEASE AFTER 11 A.M. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1974
EPA ISSUES REPORT ON HEALTH EFFECTS FROM RADIATION
The Environmental Protection Agency today issued a report
exploring a new concept for use in establishing radiation pro-
tection standards.
The new perspective, called "environmental dose commitment,"
is designed to effectively consider environmental buildup of
long-lived pollutants in the development of radiation standards.
The report is titled "Environmental Radiation Dose Commit-
ment: An Application to the Nuclear Power Industry."
The Agency emphasized that the report is only an initial
step in developing this concept, and that EPA is seeking the
comments of the scientific community on the methodology employed
in the study.
To illustrate the concept of environmental dose commitment,
the Agency examined the potential impact of the operation of
the nuclear power industry over the next 50 years.
The study concludes that the predicted overall environmental
impact of the persistent radioactive materials released by
normal operation of the nuclear power industry can be relatively
small, provided that proper controls are maintained.
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In this regard, the Agency says that if future radiation
standards take into account the long-term buildup, this impact
can be maintained at acceptable levels.
Nuclear facilities used for both civilian and military pur-
poses produce both short-lived and long-lived radionuclides.
The short-lived nuclides decay soon after production, and conse-
quently their contribution to overall population exposure is of
short duration. Long-lived nuclides are persistent in the environ-
ment and therefore can be considered irreversible pollutants.
Agency officials said control of persistent radioactive elements
is particularly important in view of the expected increase in
nuclear power production.
The report projects, by the end of the 50-year period con-
sidered, upper estimates for some of the radionuclides considered
of as many as 5,000 to 25,000 committed potential health effects
over the succeeding 100 years.
To provide a perspective, any such potential health impact
can be viewed in the light of the many-fold greater number of
health effects attributable to natural background radiation.
The National Academy of Sciences in its report entitled, "The
Effects on Populations of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing
Radiation," has given a most likely estimate of approximately
3,000 to 4,000 cancer deaths annually as attributable to levels
of natural background radiation in the U.S. This is equivalent
to roughly one percent of the spontaneous cancer deaths per year.
Effects attributable to natural background radiation ex-
posures are estimated on an annual basis and therefore for any
comparison to the projections made in the report, the time period
covered would have to be taken into account.
Unlike the situation with respect to natural background
radiation exposures, however, most of the projected potential
impact of long-lived radionuclides from the nuclear power indus-
try can be avoided. The timely imposition of controls which
consider the environmental dose commitment concept can minimize
the potential effects attributable to release of these materials.
The report focuses on four specific long-lived radionuclides:
plutonium-239 and other actinides, Krypton-85, iodine-129, and
tritium.
Results of the EPA's numerical estimates indicate that with-
out additional pollution control, releases of plutonium-2 39 and
other actinides over the next 50 years could induce from 24 to
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24,000 additional potential lethal cancers and genetic damage
during the succeeding 100 year period. The lower figure is the
most probable estimate if expected performance of current levels
of control is projected into the future. The upper more pessi-
mistic figure results from more conservative assumptions. The
EPA believes that the potential consequences of such assumptions
should be examined to assure that adequate measures will be
taken to protect the public health.
The wide range indicates that there are major uncertainties
in the current knowledge of the release and behavior of plutonium
and the actinides. The estimate for krypton-85 is 6,900 addi-
tional potential cases of damage to human health; tritium, 2,800
and iodine-129, about 3 to 250 additional potential cases. These
projections apply only to expected releases from the United States
nuclear power industry during the next half century.
EPA scientists use the word "potential" to emphasize that the
specific health effects projected in the report come from informa-
tion derived at higher levels than those actually to be experienced.
Limited copies of the report are available for the press at
the EPA Press Office, Room 335, Waterside Mall, 401 M Street, SW.,
Washington, D.C. Copies of the report are available for public
inspection in the EPA Public Document Room, Room 232, Waterside
Mall West, 401 M Street, SW., Washington, D.C.
Single copies of the report may be obtained by writing to
the Reports Branch, Office of Radiation Programs, Room 615,
Waterside Mall East, 401 M Street, SW., Washington, D.C. 20460.
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