dose from airborne emissions

[Andrew Karam <karam.1@osu.edu>]

Dear RadSafers:

I just found out that the Ohio EPA is proposing to change airborne
emissions rules to require permitting any facility "having radionuclide
emissions to the ambient air that...would cause a member of the public to
receive in ay year an effective dose equivalent of 0.1 millirem/year...."
Current OEPA regulations do not mention radionuclide emissions at all and
the OEPA currently does not deal with radiological regulation in Ohio.
Ohio is not an NRC Agreement State.

The EPA has scheduled a public hearing on their proposed rule change for
this Friday.  I plan to attend and to submit testimony in opposition to
this standard.  Because of the short notice, I would appreciate any solid
information I can include in my testimony with respect to the feasibility
of monitoring and enforcing such a standard, comparisons with other
industrial emissions (for example, radon from natural gas plants, C-14 from
wood-burning plants, etc.), and so forth.  I have many of the basic
references and will be going through them, but I also realize that many
minds working together are much better than mine in isolation.

I know that this standard is stupid, uninformed, costly, and all that.
That's why I'll be testifying against it.  So please don't go into all
that, for the sake of other list members.  Please send any thoughts you
might have directly to me (karam.1@osu.edu) or post them if you think them
to be of general interest.

Thanks in advance!  I will be happy to make available a copy of my
statements to anyone who may be interested.

Andy


Andrew Karam, CHP  (karam.1@osu.edu)
The Ohio State University Office of Radiation Safety
1314 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH  43212
(614) 292-1284 (phone)
(614) 292-7002 (fax)