A major new study claims that U.S. radiation exposure guidelines do not adequately protect women and children because they are based on standards designed for 20- to 30-year-old Caucasian males.
The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) of Takoma Park, MD, is recommending immediate changes by federal and state government agencies to acknowledge the significantly higher risk of radiation dose exposure levels to women and children. New guidelines would provide much higher levels of protection, according to the institute.
According to the IEER study, radiation protection guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission base their standards on a hypothetical "reference man," an adult white male weighing 154 lb with a height of 5 ft, 7 inches.
This ignores the fact that women are 52% more likely to get cancer from the same amount of radiation dose compared to men, and a female infant has about a seven times greater chance, according to Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., president of IEER and the report's author.
The report recommends that compliance with radiation protection be estimated by calculation doses for those most at risk, and that the EPA overhaul its guidance documents to reflect doses received by males and females of all ages.
It also calls for a significant reduction in the maximum allowable dose to the general public, from 100 millirem of radiation per year to 25 millirem per year.
Other recommendations to the federal agencies include:
- Terminate the use of the "reference man" standard.
- Develop and publish dose conversion factors for females.
- Develop and publish age- and gender-specific external dose conversion factors.
- Develop and publish fetal dose conversion factors and fill critical gaps in early fetal dose estimation methods, and reduce the maximum allowable fetal exposure in radiation-related workplaces from 500 millirem to 100 millirem.
- Calculate lifetime radiation dose risk calculations based on females rather than males.
- Publish reference characteristics for African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.
The Obama administration transition team is currently considering the recommendations of the 46-page report, according to Makhijani.
Related Reading
Radiation dose awareness leads to drop in pediatric CT usage, December 12, 2008
U.S. study weighs lifetime risks from CT scans, December 3, 2008
Study: Early x-ray exposure may increase breast cancer risk, November 26, 2008
FDA posts pediatric imaging advisory, June 25, 3008
House resolution advocates lower pediatric x-ray dose, May 27, 2008
Copyright © 2009 AuntMinnie.com
