John —
Please see "Manual of Protective Action Guides and Protective
Actions for Nuclear Incidents" (EPA 400-R-92-001, October 1991). This
document establishes the range of projected dose at which certain protective
actions (i.e., sheltering, evacuation) should be implemented in the U.S. In
establishing a range of 1-5 rem TEDE for evacuation, EPA specifically adopts
the rounded BEIR III value of "a risk of 3E-4 cancer deaths per
person-rem" (page C-10). Several pages (B-18 through B-22) specifically
discuss cancer risk.
So, in my humble opinion, EPA HAS ... specifically in
reference to emergency planning ... said that small amounts of radiation
delivered to large populations WILL kill.
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Did I miss something? You cite "a risk of......" and then
you convert this into "WILL kill". There is a tremendous
difference between a risk and to be killed. When driving a car, you have a
certain risk of being killed, but to all of my knowledge not everybody who
drives a car is killed....
I
fully support the statement of "jenday" cited below.
Franz
> What is interesting is that to the best of my
knowledge, no federal agency
> or organization, i.e., NCRP, NRC, DOE,
FEMA, etc., have ever made the claim
> that small amounts of
radiation will kill. The LNT is for regulatory
> purposes, not
emergency planning.