Re: Age determination by x-ray examinations

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@cpcug.org>]

Jose:

Thank you for your comment.  I understand that a person charged with
implementing a regulation has no choice but to implement it as written.  My
comment was based on my frustration at how little effort is going into
changing the regs to align them with the scientific evidence.

But even implementation has some elbow room in it.  The regulators are quick
to state that ALARA contains the modifier "reasonable" in it, and they deny
any responsibility for ALARA being carried to unreasonable degrees.  To me,
it seems clear that we all accept the background radiation that nature
provides, and don't worry about moving to a location where this natural
background may be considerably higher.  Therefore, I would say that applying
ALARA to radiation levels that are already below the variations in natural
background is not "reasonable" and should not be done where avoidable.


TR

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