74 N-5 The sequence of safety recommendations and guides has run as follows. (a) In 1954 the National Bureau of Standards Handbook 59 presented the recommendations of the NCRP. The maximum permissible dose to the body) was 0.3 rem per week. bone marrow (and hence to the entire (b) In January, population was lowered published as an insert other recommendations Report to the Congress. 1957, the whole-body dose for the general to .5 rem per year by the NCRP. This was The AEC also published this into Handbook 59. 22nd Semiannual in Appendix 10, p. 400 of its (c) In 1960, the Federal Radiation Council defined The “radiation protection guide” the general population. The “protective case of protection was .170 rem per year. to cover marrow. spills These and other regulations, accidents, was .2 now administered rem per year by EPA, are (d) In the period 1985-87, the ICRP (1985) and the dropped their recommendations for the general population year. two guides and for for the usual action guide”, to the bone still in force. NCRP (1987) to .1 rem per When the Rongelap people returned in 1957, therefore, the guide by the AEC was 0.5 rem per year. employed It is not clear to me that this guide was met, although it may have been approximately, i.e., within a factor of two. The external dose was stated to be less than 0.5 R/year, and strontium-90 was considered to be the only significant radionuclide determining the internal dose (Dunning 1957). Lessard (Note 7), by extrapolation, found the committed effective dose equivalent to be about 0.7 rem in 1957, .44 rem in 1958, and .36 rem in 1959. These do not allow for the contributions of plutonium and americium. estimates