although a few received higher exposures and many received none at all. Exposures at these low levels have long been thought to involve negligible health risk. (and still today) For many years Federal exposure standards for radiation workers have generally been set at 3 rem per quarter and 5 rem per year. These values were, to be on the safe side, in the past, believed and many still think this; but some scientists now believe the risks may be greater, and the issue is currently the subject of some controversy in the scientific community. Recently the President established an Interagency Task Force on the Health Effects of Ionizing Radiation. The Report of this Task Force may serve to put the very slight degree of risk in its proper context. cancer statistics, The Report points to national which show that cancer is the cause of death for about 16 percent of the population. Thus, of the 250,000 DoD personnel who participated in the atmospheric nuclear tests, about 40,000 could be expected eventually to die of cancer which is not related to the nuclear tests. By contrast, the Report notes that if our current data and assumptions are correct, there might eventually be about 12 cancer deaths from among the 250,000 which bear a statistical relationship to test radiation exposure. ‘