incidence from DOE facilities is also less than the annual
°
population impact from inorganic arsenic emissions from
secondary lead smelters (i.e., between .20 and 3.3) which
EPA has decided not to regulate. see 48 FR 33112 (July 20,
1993).
It is also less than or approximately equivalent to
the annual population impact after imposition of proposed
EPA regulations for low-arsenic copper smelters (i.e.,
between 0.21 and 3.4) and glass manufacturing plants (i.e.,
between 0.01 and 0.21). See id.
Also indicative of the low risk associated with current
emissions from DOE facilities is the fact that radionuclide
emissions from the two DOE facilities with the highest
emissions and which are the only two DOE facilities which
currently violate the EPA proposed standard (i.e., a dose
equivalent rate of 10 mrem/year to whole body, 30 mrem/year
to any organ) produce an increased radiation dose to the
surrounding populations of only 0.08 percent above natural
background radiation. $/
Using the BEIR 1980 cancer death
risk numbers, 6/ the additional risk to the average individual
2,
Releases from all DOE facilities result in a total
offsite whole body dose equivalent to residents within 50
miles of those facilities of approximately 400 person-rem
per year.
See EPA Draft Background Information Document,
PROPOSED STANDARDS FOR RADIONUCLIDES
(March 1983)
(hereinafter
cited as EPA Draft Background Information Document). One
half of this 400 person-rem per year results from emissions
from the Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC) at Fernald,
Ohio (approximately 132 person-rem) and the Oak Ridge Reservation
(approximately 70 person-rem).
Information Document, supra.
See EPA Draft Background
The
3.2 million people residing
within 50 miles of these two facilities receive a dose
equivalent from natural background of 262,000 person-rem per
year.
See id.:
NCRP Report No.
45, NATURAL BACKGROUND RADIATION
IN THE UNITED STATES (November 15, 1975).
Background radiation
exposures in the United States vary from about 60 mrem/year
to 125 mrem/year excluding radon,...feeNCRPReport No. 45,
“Yee footnote 2.
Supra.
eee
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DRAFT