RSH Data & Documents
ANS Winter Meeting, Oct/Nov 1995, San Francisco, CA
Low-Level Radiation Health Effects Sessions, Oct 31 - Nov 1, 1995, San
Francisco, CA (Sessions: 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7)
ANS Biology and Medicine Division and Environmental Science Division
Organizer: Jim Muckerheide
Chair, BMD Low Level Radiation Health Effects Committee
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Session 1.7: Low Level
Radiation Health Effects Policy Changes: Needs for Research, Organization, Communications,
and Corrective Actions
Panel/Working Meeting Discussion
This Panel discusses taking constructive actions: by ANS, in
association with the Health Physics Society and other professional societies, and
government, researchers, universities, medical, industrial, and nuclear utility
organizations, for the following purposes: to correct the lack and misuse of scientific
data; and to correct erroneous policies, programs, and regulations.
These failures are created by inappropriate application of the linear, no-threshold
radiation dose-response "model" resulting in unwarranted public fears and large
public costs for no public health benefit, and the loss of contributions from
nuclear and radiation science and technology to benefit humanity and the environment.
Agenda topics are: 1. Identify specific radiation dose effect research needs and
research support sources; 2. Organize for interfaces and coordination among professional
societies and other institutions; 3. Identify information and communications resources for
use within this group, and for external communications, including Internet communications
and resources, with initial target audiences, and; 4. Identify corrective action
opportunities to change current public policies and programs (e.g., "regulatory
reform" in legislation and policies; revise roles, functions, and makeup of NCRP,
ICRP, NAS/NRC BEIR, and/or UNSCEAR; participate in EPA 100 mr/yr rulemaking, and NRC
DD&R rulemaking, NCRP etc.)
Panelists:(Past President, ANS)
Dr. Marvin Goldman (Immediate Past President, HPS)
Dr. Jerry Cuttler (President, CNS)
Myron Pollycove, MD (Professor Emeritus, UCSF)
Dr. Sohei Kondo (Professor Emeritus, Osaka U., Researcher Kinki, U., Japan)
Dr. Sadao Hattori (CRIEPI, Japan)
Dr. Don Luckey (Professor Emeritus, U. Missouri)
Dr. Takeo Ohnishi (Nara Medical University, Japan)
*Dr. Bernard Cohen (U. Pittsburgh)
**Leonard Sagan, MD (Sagan Consulting, EPRI retired)
Dr. Robert Thomas (former Director, CHR; DOE)
Dr. Allen Brodsky (US NRC, Retired)
Dr. Michael Fox (Westinghouse Hanford)
Dr. Alden Tschaeche (LITCo)
Dr. James Trosko (U. Mich, former Director of Research, RERF)
Dr. Sheldon Wolff (UCSF)
Dr. Takashi Makinodan (UCLA, VA Los Angeles Med Center)
Dr. Jerry Cohen (LLNL, Retired)
Dr. Fritz Seiler (Int'l Technology Corp)
Dr. Joseph Alvarez (Int'l Technology Corp)
Mr. Jack Ransohoff (Neutron Products)
Carol Marcus, PhD, MD (President Cal Chapter Am. College of Nuclear Physicians)
* Schedule requires early departure, input as session participant.
** Did not attend due to conflict.
Panelists provide informal or formal input distributed prior to the Panel meeting.
Contributors have addressed the following topics that potentially warrant action:
- Identify specific radiation dose effect research needs and research support sources;
- Organize interfaces and coordination among professional societies and other
institutions;
- Identify information and communications resources for use within this group, for
external communications, and identify initial target audiences, and;
- Identify corrective actions to change current public policies and programs.
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The following agenda items
are provided:
Re item 1: Research
- Reestablish followup of and reporting of data and programs that have been supporessed
and terminated by DOE and other Federal agencies:
- the radium-burden population of the Center for Human Radiobiology at Argonne with data
that has been suppressed and program terminated by DOE;
- the DOE >5 rem population suppressed by DOE and CDC/NIOSH; and
- review and publish the Nuclear Shipyard Worker Study (NSWS) suppressed by DOE.
- Utilities establish a qualified research advisory group to direct an EPRI program to
compile and organize applicable low-to-moderate dose-response data, and propose
radiobiology research support, including collaboration with the positive research programs
by conducted by the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industy (CRIEPI) of
Japan.
- Establish a review committee to critically evaluate and comment on studies and reports
in the peer-reviewed literature and for government program documents, including BEIR,
ICRP, NCRP, NRPB, IARC, and other agencies, that support or apply the "linear
model".
- Support research to confirm data that show adverse effects from suppressing natural
background radiation.
- Support research to confirm data on tumor suppression and prevention with
low-to-moderate whole body radiation.
- Support research on US medical radiation-exposed healthy patients, and support
completion and publishing of suppressed research (eg, the FDA study of medical use of
I-131 in children).
- Support follow on of US background radiation health effects research that shows a
negative correlation of cancer with background radiation.
- Support US animal radiobiology studies of health effects of low-to-moderate radiation
doses from subambient conditions to about 100 cSv/year.
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