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Naturally occurring radionuclides are found throughout the earth's crust, and they form part of the natural background of radiation to which all humans are exposed. Many human activities-such as mining and milling of ores, extraction of petroleum products, use of groundwater for domestic purposes, and living in houses-alter the natural background of radiation either by moving naturally occurring radionuclides from inaccessible locations to locations where humans are present or by concentrating the radionuclides in the exposure environment. Such alterations of the natural environment can increase, sometimes substantially, radiation exposures of the public. Exposures of the public to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that result from human activities that alter the natural environment can be subjected to regulatory control, at least to some degree. The regulation of public exposures to such technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory and advisory organizations is the subject of this study by the National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of EPA Guidelines for Exposures to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.
The most recent volume in the Drinking Water and Health series contains the results of a two-part study on the toxicity of drinking water contaminants. The first part examines current practices in risk assessment, identifies new noncancerous toxic responses to chemicals found in drinking water, and discusses the use of pharmacokinetic data to estimate the delivered dose and response. The second part of the book provides risk assessments for 14 specific compounds, 9 presented here for the first time.
This new book focuses on sampling and analysis, radon and radium in water supply wells, predictive models, geologic and hydrogeologic controls that influence radon occurrence, monitoring radon and other radioactivity from geologic sources and mining impacts on occurrence of radioactivity in ground water. Also discussed are occurrence, testing, treatment, and reduction of radon from groundwater. Because the most severe health hazard from indoor radioactivity results from inhalation of short-lived radioactive decay products of radon, the EPA scheduled a major conference early in 1987 on Radon, Radium, and Other Radioactivity in Ground Water-Hydrogeologic Impact and Application to Indoor Airborne Contamination. The result is this book.
This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.
This report assesses the levels and effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. Scientific findings underpin radiation risk evaluation and international protection standards. This report comprises a report with two underpinning scientific annexes. The first annex recapitulates and clarifies the philosophy of science as well as the scientific knowledge for attributing observed health effects in individuals and populations to radiation exposure, and distinguishes between that and inferring risk to individuals and populations from an exposure. The second annex reviews the latest thinking and approaches to quantifying the uncertainties in assessments of risk from radiation exposure, and illustrates these approaches with application to examples that are highly pertinent to radiation protection.
There is little disagreement that the potential effects of water contamination on human health and the environment should not be ignored, even though the exact nature of those effects is not yet fully understood. That permanently incapacitating and even lethal substances (asbestos, for example) have, in ignorance, been introduced into the environment may become apparent only decades after their introduction. A new principle in water quality regulation is emerging in response to awareness of these dangers: An individual or organization can be held accountable for hazards to human health or for degradation of the environment created by the introduction of a substance, even if the individual or organization is not the source of that substance, even if no regulation of the substance currently exists, and even if the substance is not known to be hazardous or to degrade the environment at the time its release occurs. This book outlines the scientific aspects of the control of natural radioactivity in water supplies, as well as the labyrinthine uncertainties in water quality regulation concerning natural radiocontamination of water. The author provides an introduction to the theory of natural radioactivity, addresses risk assessment, describes sources and effects of natural radiocontamination of water, surveys federal water law concerning natural radiocontamination, and presents an account of how one city dealt with the perplexities that mark this rapidly evolving area of water quality regulation.