Re[4]: Contaminated Residential Waste from I-131 Patient-Reply

["Michael S Ford" <MFORD@pantex.com>]

Better late than never.....

Steve, in addition to the private comment that I just sent you....

Don't confuse the politics of lawmaking with the rulemaking bureaucracies.  The two are distinct and separate.  

The legislature may pass the law, but it's up to the bureaucrats to write a rule implementing it.  That's where science, reason, and prudence should enter the process... AND that's also where we can make a difference PROVIDED the bureaucrats have not made up their mind as to what they'll be doing.

Unless there is some gross error in a rule, the bureaucracies can and will ignore any comment that they don't agree with UNLESS a large enough group of folks gets organized and gets their attention.

NRC does it, EPA does it.  Carol has every right to rail against these folks.  She can see first hand what the NRC rules do to the quality of care she can provided to her patients.

>> steve.rima@DOEGJPO.COMwrote on Fri 11 Feb 00  11:43 >>
Bill,
     
I have my own opinion of the EPA as an agency, as I do of the NRC, DOE, etc. I'll keep those "global" opinions to myself and not post 
them to RADSAFE; however, I do find that it's sometimes too easy to blame "the government" or "the bureacracy" for what we may perceive to be problems. Passing laws and writing regulations to implement those laws is essentially a political process, and not a scientific one. 

That's the unfortunate reality that we live with. Maybe the experts who distrust and rail against the NRC or any other agency should go to work for them and try to change things.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
v/r
Michael
TRAB
mford@pantex.com
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