Re: NCRP 136

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Jerry Cohen <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET>

An: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS) <jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov>; Ted Rockwell

<tedrock@CPCUG.ORG>; RadSafe <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Mittwoch, 24. Oktober 2001 22:15

Betreff: Re: NCRP 136





John,

    Unfortunately, I can't disagree you. I guess that the life of a

regulator is pretty easy. I know of no instance where a regulator has been

jailed, fired, or reprimanded in any way for overregulating. As you suggest,

Congress has essentially given them a license to do so. The sad part of all

this is that all of the money and other limited resources  squandered in

controlling non-problems, might actually do some good if it were directed

toward areas of actual risk that have no political constituancy. "The

squeaking hinge gets the oil."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------



I am serious with the following request: Please explain to me what you

regard as a 'regulator'? You obviously make some distinction between

Congress and Regulator. Are the regulators you mean the government officials

who make law proposals?



I am not too familiar with the US system of legislation. However I would

believe that some basic similarities should exist in all democracies round

the world, namely, that the Parliament (in the US case it seems to be

Congress or maybe the President - yes I know there is a complicated system

how they are controlling each other) is the only body, which can put

legislation into force. Members of Parliament (Congress) as well as the

US-President are politicians and so they are responsible for the laws they

put into force. I am aware, that quite a lot of legislation is done in the

single US-states, but the situation is not really different: Politicians are

the ones, who are responsible for the laws and regulations. Therefore I

would believe, that the ones responsible for laws and therefore to be blamed

for laws which might not reflect common sense are politicians.



Now my problem understanding the fierce blames on 'regulators': In my

country and as well in other European countries by 'regulator' we understand

the government employees in the ministries, who work on proposals for laws.

Government employees are totally dependent on the will of the minister.

There is a very strict hierarchy with the Minister on top, then there are

Sections with their Section Heads and each Section has Departments under a

Department Head. "Ordinary" government officials have to do what the

Department Head says - whatever nonsense it might be, the Department Head

has to do what the Section Head says and the Section Head has to do what the

Minister says. And the Minister is - of course - a politician, who usually

has no idea about the tasks of the Ministry. Please do not try to tell me,

that this is different in the USA. I know that there are exceptions from the

rule. The ordinary officials who work on law proposals have to work

according to what is told them. They might make a proposal, but they have to

forget about it, if it is decided by their supervisors - and finally the

Minister - that the political will is different. If they are ordered to

incorporate the European Basic Safety Standards Directive, which is based on

the ICRP into National Law, they have to do it. Actually it has to, so the

Minister and the Government are not even the end of the queue upward in

hierarchy.



Unfortunately I am one of those regulators now - previously I ran a great

laboratory for radiochemistry and food control, being involved in many

international projects, but since I worked as independent as possible, the

lab was taken from me - sitting at the desk and trying to formulate together

with my collegues something which makes some sense, but the values are

mostly fixed, and the ones not fixed will be set by politicians, who are

influenced by "Greens", who take values they found somewhere and divide it

by 1000. If the legislation is practical, if it is possible to ensure these

values - nobody cares. Politicians want to show their clientel, that they

care for them and protect them. This is how we end up with some micro-Sv per

year from artificial radionuclides while we receive some milli-Sv from the

nonregulated radon in indoor air.



This mail became much longer than it was intended. If my understanding is

right, then I would seriously recommend that you direct your wrath about

radiation protection legislation to the ones, who are responsible for it -

namely the politicians - and not to the government employees, whom I call

"regulators".



Franz







So, if your definition of a "regulator" would be people working on law

proposals.





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