GAO Report "Problems In Assessing the Cancer Risks of Low-Level Ionizing Radiation Exposure

[Andy Hull <hull@mail.sep.bnl.gov>]

With regard to the recent threads on cancer assessments and the new Wing
Study, dated as they may be, the recommendations of this 1981 GAO Report
seem to me as cogent today as they were then. On the basis of their review
of Epidemiological Studies, Animal Studies and Studies on Fundamental
Mechanisms (molecular and cellular), the GAO  recommended that the
Interagency Radiation Research Committee  then existing by Presidential
(Carter's) Memorandum) should:

-Ensure, in research on ionizing  radiation exposure,that increased
priority and emphasis are given to studying the mechanisms of cancer
induction through cellular and molecular studies and other fundamental
research.

-Ensure that the cognizant Federal agencies conduct epidemiological studies
of groups that offer large numbers of people and a range of radiation
exposure doses.

-Because of limited funding, ensure that epidemiological studies involving
primarily low levels of ionizing radiation  exposure are of sufficient
scientific merit to justify the costs of long-term follow-up efforts.

-Ensure that the cognizant Federal agencies continue to conduct a limited
number of high-quality animal experiments, particularly  with dogs and
primates.

During the Reagan administration, CIRRPC was established for radiation
policy making. Today there is no successor to it, leaving it up to the
Federal agencies
to go their own thing, unfettered by any attempt to coordinate them.  The
result seems to me to be the proliferation of politically rather than
scientifically driven assessments, studies, etc.  We may well deplore this,
as several recent Radsafe contributors have, but what does this accomplish
absent a coordinated effort on our part to redress the present messy
situation?

Andy Hull
S&EP-BNL
Upton, NY 11973
Voice 516-344-4210
Fax   344-4210
e-mail: hull@mail.sep.bnl.gov