Re: What is Safe

[David W Lee <lee_david_w@lanl.gov>]

Much thanks is due to Ron Kathern who clarified in his post
of today (16 Feb 99) that use of the LNT by the ICRP in 1959 (ICRP #1)
was predated by the NCRP in 1954 (NCRP 17).  Since my post to
RADSAFE on 11 Feb 99 appears to be the one which CLEARLY frustrated
Harry, having now read his post below, I see very little difference
between the "ICRP buying into LNT as fact" and the ICRP
adopting the use of LNT as the philosophy under which it chose to lower
the primary dose limits as set forth in ICRP 1.  I think most of us
can agree that the LNT is not FACT and never has been; but it is a fact
that the ICRP has chosen to use it at least since its very first official
report in 1959.  Best regards  David




At 01:58 PM 2/16/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>I agree completely with Al Tschaeche's post on ICRP.  What I
don't agree
>with is other posts (which I somehow lost) stating that ICRP had
CLEARLY
>bought into LNT by 1959.  When they use statements such as
"conservative",
>" effects of low doses are not known" and "for the
purposes of radiation
>protection",  I take that to mean that they were saying (to
paraphrase) that
>in the absence of evidence either way we should use the most
conservative
>assumption (LNT) for the purpose of protecting the workers, the
public and
>the environment. To my thinking, that does not indicate CLEARLY
buying into
>LNT as a fact.  If they had had the information we have now, I
wonder if
>they would have taken a different tact?  I wonder what the
authors of that
>original position think about the extremes to which it has been
taken.  Is
>my logic flawed -am I using selective reading to come to an
interpretation
>that agrees with me just as the proponents of LNT use the reverse
reading?
>Are we all just seeing what we want to see?
>
>Harry
>Harold.Reynolds@RFETS.gov
>303.966.2708
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DAVID W. LEE
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Radiation Protection Services, ESH-12
X-Ray/Source Control Team Leader
PO Box 1663, MS K483
Los Alamos, NM  87545
PH:   (505) 667-8085
FAX:  (505) 667-9726
lee_david_w@lanl.gov