EPA Relaxes Public Health Guidelines For Radiological Attacks, Accidents 環境保護庁、核攻撃や放射能事故後の公衆衛生指針を緩和

(Source) http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/epa-relaxes-public-health-guidelines-radiological-attacks-accidents/


April 8, 2013
By Douglas P. Guarino
Global Security Newswire 
WASHINGTON – 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 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 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.
[…]
原発事故時の核汚染－年間１ミリから２０ミリ許容へ－米国の環境保護庁新指針（案）
　現在年間２０ミリシーベルトの避難基準を、１ミリまで下げるようにと政府と住民との間で何度も話し合いがもたれて います。一方、日本の同盟国であり、世界最大の核大国である米国は原発事故などの長期に亘る放射能汚染が避けられない場合は、年間２０ミリまで被曝を認め るように法律の改正を企てていました。

(Japaneses translation) http://onodekita.sblo.jp/article/78680781.html