Gina
McCarthy, US President Barack Obama's nominee to run the Environmental
Protection Agency(EPA) oversaw the revision of the Protective Action
Guide Manual (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
The
acting EPA director on Friday signed a revised version of the EPA’s
Protective Action Guide for radiological incidents, which critics say
radically relaxes the safety guidelines agencies follow in the wake of a
nuclear-reactor meltdown, dirty-bomb attack, or other unexpected
release of radiation.
Although the document is a
draft
published for public comment, it takes effect as an “interim use”
guideline. And according to Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER), that means agencies responding to radiation
emergencies may permit many more civilian fatalities.
“In soil,
the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high
as 2,000 millirems,” PEER advocacy director Kirsten Stade said in a
press release.
“This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person
cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period.”
The
non-binding document does not relax EPA’s standards, the agency has
said in response to the criticism. But it directs agencies responding to
radiation releases to standards at other agencies that are
less stringent than EPA. Douglas Guarino has the scoop at NextGov, a publication that follows technology and government:
The
new version of the guide released Friday does not include such
dramatically relaxed guidelines in its text, but directs the reader to
similar recommendations made by other federal agencies and international
organizations in various documents. It suggests that they might be
worth considering in circumstances where complying with [EPA's] own
enforceable drinking water regulations is deemed impractical….
For
example, the new EPA guide refers to International Atomic Energy
Agency guidelines that suggest intervention is not necessary until
drinking water is contaminated with radioactive iodine 131 at a
concentration of 81,000 picocuries per liter. This is 27,000 times less
stringent than the EPA rule of 3 picocuries per liter.
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EPA Relaxes Public Health Guidelines For Radiological Attacks, Accidents
Jackie Johnston/AP file photo
After years of internal deliberation and controversy, the Obama
administration has issued a document suggesting that when dealing with
the aftermath of an accident or attack involving radioactive materials,
public health guidelines can be made thousands of times less stringent
than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would normally allow.
The EPA document, called a protective action guide for radiological incidents, was quietly posted on a
page on the agency’s website Friday evening. The low-profile release followed an
uproar of concern from
watchdog groups in recent weeks over news that the White House had
privately agreed to back relaxed radiological cleanup standards in
certain circumstances and had cleared the path for the new EPA guide.
Agency officials had tried to issue the protective action guide during
the final days of the Bush administration in January 2009, but the
incoming Obama camp ultimately
blocked its
publication in part due to concerns that it included guidelines
suggesting people could drink water contaminated at levels thousands of
times above what the agency would typically permit.
The new version of the guide released Friday does not include such
dramatically relaxed guidelines its text, but directs the reader to
similar recommendations made by other federal agencies and international
organizations in various documents. It suggests that they might be
worth considering in circumstances where complying with its own
enforceable drinking water regulations is deemed impractical.
Such circumstances could include the months – and possibly years –
following a “dirty bomb” attack, a nuclear weapons explosion or an
accident at a nuclear power plant, according to the guide, a nonbinding
document intended to prepare federal, state and local officials for
responding to such events.
For example, the new EPA guide refers to
International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines
that suggest intervention is not necessary until drinking water is
contaminated with radioactive iodine 131 at a concentration of 81,000
picocuries per liter. This is 27,000 times less stringent than the EPA
rule of 3 picocuries per liter.
“This is public health policy only Dr. Strangelove could embrace,” Jeff
Ruch, executive director for the watchdog group Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement Monday, referring to
Peter Sellers’ character in the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name.
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