[ RadSafe ] Speaking of a de minimis regulatory level ....

[Ted de Castro]

Recently while doing some consulting for an analytical x-ray 
installation I explained the use of the HEW "Color TV limit" as a 
"bullet proof" leakage criteria without needing to go any lower.

Thinking about that I realized that the HEW in declaring an acceptable 
emission limit for an entertainment device in the home and often 
attended by young children had in effect made a regulatory declaration 
of de minimis acceptable radiation levels.

Never mind that few if any sets actually emitted this much, that the 
ones that did only emitted that much out the back, that it applies only 
to now obsolete technology and that it was stipulated under conditions 
that rendered the image unviewable - never the less - its out there, in 
federal law and effects to living rooms across the country!

I wonder what dose consequences were assumed in arriving at that standard?

Comments on this notion?