NIOSH testimony on radiation protection for occupational workers, March 25, 1992.

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  This testimony concerned the views of NIOSH regarding the proposed rule changes for protecting workers from radiation hazards on the job. The Department of Energy addressed three alternate approaches including lowering the annual dose limits for stochastic effects, adopting a different lifetime dose limit, and adding an average annual individual dose requirement of 2 rem to the present single year limit of 5 rem. NIOSH contends that the proposed specific exposure limit should minimize the risk of excess deaths and serious genetic effects among Department of Energy workers. The proposed annual dose equivalent limit of 0.5 rem for pregnant women workers is of concern. The risk of severe mental retardation to the unborn child is about 4 in 1000 live births per rad when exposure occurs between 8 and 15 weeks after conception. Generally NIOSH recommends that the maximum levels for occupational exposures protect the health and functional capacity of the most susceptible member of the worker population. NIOSH would urge that the Department of Energy reduce the current 5 rem maximum level of radiation exposure for all workers to a level that is as protective as feasible for this susceptible subpopulation.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Carcinogens Enzymes Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Brain-disorders; Developmental-disorders NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Testimony Occupational-exposure Pregnancy Prenatal-exposure Radiation-exposure Radiation-hazards Reproductive-hazards
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Testimony
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00237110
• Citation:
  NIOSH 1992 Mar:; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:de6315d468778d5ad0f1e4ae758a1a929437b2e86dae331f8b8f936bfff3384f658a5ba07d13cf15f11be5d47db75c27b12d33a9c3824b89d40ab6d6e2954db9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/180979/cdc_180979_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 340.97 KB ]