In 1949, the maximum permissible dose for radiation

was lowered to 0.3 roentgen per week.
It was lowered again
in 1957 to 5 rem/vr as the permissible dose for radiation
workers.
This standard is still in effect.
The AEC has also played a significant role in setting
radiation standards.
However, the AEC's regulatory authority
over materials was, and still is, limited by the Atomic Energy
Act of 1954, as amended, to source, by-product, and special
nuclear material.
Before the Federal Radiation Council
(FRC) was formed, the AEC, when setting radiation standards,
generally followed «losely the ‘recommendations of the NCRP,

which in turn paralleled the ICRP recommendations.

In 1959, after the advent of the atomic age had aroused
public fears over fallout from nuclear weapons, the U. S.
government, because of uncertainty of government influence
over radiation protection standards, organized the FRC.

It was authorized by Congress to "...advise the President
with respect to radiation matters directly or indirectly
affecting health, including guidance for all federal agencies
in the formulation cf radiation standards and in establishment
and execution of crearams

in cooperation with

the

states..."¢

The final authority with respect to radiation standards rested
not with the FRC but with the President.
Such a subordinate
agency as the AEC, for example, had to make its rules, e.g.,
those governing licensed reactors, compatible with the overall
guides developed by the FRC.
.

Tnroughout

the

1950's

the

ICRP

and NCRP

continued

to

yrevise and refine the basic recommendations concerning

permissible radiation exposure standards.
Standards were
recommended for some non-occupational groups and for the whole

population.
Maximum permissible body burdens and maximum
permissible concentrations of radionuclides in the air and in
water were recommended as secondary standards.
Most of these

recommendations were incorporated by the FRC and the AEC.

In 1970 the FRC was abolished and its duties were transferrel
to the EPA.
Since that time, the setting of population
exposure standards has resided in EPA.
Population standards,

2/ FRC Report No. 1, Backaround Material for the Development
of Radiation Protection Standards, Government Printing Office,
Washington,

s RSre °
wn

7

t. va
age aa

D.

C.,

May 13,

: ‘ ae se
.

pref t

we

Oye

1960, -p.

Me
.

.

ae
tre
gay,
wth
AGA ‘wat ee

foy

:

;

l.

7

eas
at peters.
~ re
*, AWw ws Tee
= me
. ~ 28

i:

ca eine
Sal
“+

'

©
mk.

“.

CPSs

to

“ ..
ae

;

‘

“

.

.

.o

;

f

vo

:

3

¢

ef

Select target paragraph3