[NYTr] Radiation 'Reference Man' Model Should Be Replaced, Say Advocates

Tue Nov 13 10:37:49 EST 2007

Womens eNews - Nov 13, 2007
http://www.womensenews.org

'Reference Man' May Lose Radiation Modeling Job

By Julie R. Enszer - WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--The "reference man" is a statistical model. He dates to
1974, but he's perpetually aged between 20 and 30 years old. He weighs
170 pounds, stands 5 feet 7 inches and hails from Western Europe or
North America.

And he represents everyone in the United States when it comes to
setting regulations for acceptable standards of exposure to ionizing
radiation.

But if the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and other
advocates get their way, he will step aside and let women and
children--who are more vulnerable to radiation's medical effects--take
over the job.

"We believe the government has an obligation to protect more than just
adult white men from the hazards of radiation," says Lisa Ledwidge,
outreach director at the institute. "Until these standards are changed,
the government is not fulfilling its responsibility."

A June 2005 report from the Washington-based National Research Council
finds women 52 percent more likely to develop some form of cancer than
men following uniform whole-body exposure to the same level of
radiation.

Children and fetuses are the most vulnerable to developing cancer due
to radiation exposure. This is because they have a longer life
expectancy and the intensive cell replication for physical growth.
Children and fetuses are also more vulnerable to neurological damage
and genetic mutations that affect growth and development.

Because of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's use of the
"reference man" as a health model, the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research's principal scientist and president, Arjun
Makhijani, advised an EPA regulatory committee last summer that the
agency "averages male and female risks in its regulatory practice in a
way that is entirely inappropriate."

Makhijani also criticized the EPA committee's draft review of
guidelines released in July 2007, for failing to discuss sex-specific
overall risk factors of exposure to radiation, except in regards to
lung cancer in women. He also criticized the review for not giving
girls special consideration, "since females are at greater risk when
they are young as well."

Immediate Focus on EPA

Ledwidge says the immediate focus is getting the EPA, the chief agency
in charge of regulating radiation standards, to lower current limits.

But the coalition of groups and individuals behind the Institute for
Energy and Environmental Research-led "Healthy From the Start" campaign
want reform throughout the government.

Ledwidge says the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration all
use standards based on the "reference man" or some similar model.

Campaigners want the EPA to change the reference man to a "hypothetical
maximum exposed individual," based on a model that better represents
those most vulnerable to ionizing radiation, such as a pregnant woman
or girl.

This would mean lowering workplace exposure levels to 2 rems per year
from 5 rems. But a much smaller exposure--100 millirems--is considered
the safe threshold for fetuses, which is why pregnant women are
generally advised to avoid X-rays, including dental scans.

Rem stands for Roentgen Equivalent Man and is named after the German
physicist who discovered X-rays; a millirem is one one-thousandth of a
rem.

More drastic cuts are called for radiation workers who declare a
pregnancy. Currently, women with a declared pregnancy working at jobs
with radiation exposure can legally be exposed to 500 millirems.
Campaigners want that lowered to 100 millirems.

According to Makhijani, the economic implications of this policy change
"are not huge. For pregnant women, the policy usually is to not
allocate them work in radiation areas, unless they ask to remain in
such areas, so the de facto goal often is zero additional dose. In
addition, most worker exposures are now below 2 rem."

Where it may make a difference is in repair and maintenance in highly
radioactive areas, such as working with fuel supplies at nuclear power
plants, he says, since a change in the standards for exposure would
benefit worker health and safety.

Advocates hope the EPA's radiation advisory committee will release new
recommendations by the end of 2007. The EPA said the report will be
made public as soon as it is completed.

No Safe Amount

Makhijani's July testimony to the radiation advisory committee of the
EPA's scientific advisory board highlighted a 2005 report by the
National Research Council of the National Academies finding "a linear,
no-threshold dose-response relationship between exposure to ionizing
radiation and the development of cancer in humans."

In other words, there is no safe amount of ionizing radiation, and it
has a direct link to cancer development.

Ionizing radiation--often simply called radiation--comes from unstable
atoms emitting invisible energy waves or particles. It has natural
environmental sources--such as the sun--and also comes from human-made
products such as smoke detectors, dental crowns, some watches and
clocks, and medical and dental X-rays including mammograms.

Increasingly, environmental exposure--including tritium in water from
nuclear power plants and clean-up of nuclear weapons facilities--is a
concern. Switching from the reference man could mean regulators limit
the amount of radiation that can be discharged from nuclear weapons
facilities and nuclear power plants, a goal of activists for people who
live downstream or downwind from these locations.

The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, a nonprofit group
founded in 1987 and based in Takoma Park, Md., produces scientific
reports for the general public designed to influence policymaking.
Their reports have influenced U.S. ozone layer depletion policies and
regulations regarding the environmental and human impact of nuclear
weapons manufacturing. The institute uses scientists to review research
but also includes people who are directly affected by the science in
their process of reviewing scientific papers and policies.

Everyone Exposed

Everyone is exposed to some radiation each year during daily
activities. Radiation can damage living cells and the DNA in cells;
excessive doses can have deleterious, long-term health consequences,
including cancer and birth defects.

A coalition of organizations and individuals are in the Healthy From
the Start campaign, including the American Public Health Association,
based in Washington, D.C.; Women's Action for New Directions,
Arlington, Mass.; and Making Our Milk Safe, or MOMS, Alameda, Calif.
Together, these organizations and others are circulating a petition to
President Bush asking him to change the regulations throughout the
federal government.

This is the first step in what organizers see as a long-term campaign
to change radiation exposure guidelines to protect the most vulnerable.

The reference man--as a model for radiation protection--was first
created by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in
1974 and was used in 1988 by the EPA to set current regulations for
radiation exposure. Regulation of radiation exposure dates to the early
1930s; after the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s and 1950s,
the regulatory focus was on the safety of atomic workers.

As scientists and policy-makers have learned more about the dangers of
radiation and particularly its link to cancer and birth defects,
regulations have tightened.

If the Healthy From the Start campaign achieves tighter restrictions,
Mary Brune, co-founder and director of MOMS, says that will be an
overall boon for public health.

"If we can create policies protective of pregnant women and the babies
they carry--as well as nursing mothers--then the world will be safe for
everyone."

[Julie R. Enszer is a writer based in University Park, Md. You can see
more of her work at www.JulieREnszer.com.]

For more information:

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, - Healthy From the
Start Campaign: - http://www.ieer.org/campaign/index.html

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: -
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/index.html

Calculate Your Radiation Dose: -
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/calculate.html