Radiation exposure problem not solved A number of government agencies involved in radiation problems and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy are still at loggerheads over the answer to a serious health question: How much exposure to radiation is permissible for a uranium miner working in an underground mine? It became apparent at hearings concluded earlier this month that the problem, considered at length at hearings before JCAE in mid-1967, is still not solved. The bone of contention this time is a ruling by the Department of Labor under the Walsh-Healey Act that, effective Jan. 1, 1969, miners in uranium mines subject to the act could not be exposed to more than four working level months (WLM) of
This product bears 10 successive coatings. If they are not put down with utmost precision, the product doesn't work. How well it does work is one of the great success stories of business history.
On hand at any camera shop.
HEW's Finch A thorough review
radiation in a year. The present maximum, in effect since 1967, is 12 WLM. (The Walsh-Healey Act applies to those holding contracts in excess of $10,000 to supply materials to the U.S. Government. Most uranium mines would be covered because the Atomic Energy Commission is the principal purchaser of uranium. The numerical value of a working-level standard is related in a complex way to a certain concentration of radon and its daughters; the working-level month is the exposure received by a worker breathing air at one workinglevel concentration for four and one third weeks of 40 hours each.) Although the Labor Department regulation seems to require compliance at the present time, it is not as stringent as it seems. Affected mines, which oan't meet the new four-WLM 32 C&EN MARCH 31f 1969
•*" ^^^f&v&y&^fa*!. ^ - "»**~E A S T M A N CHROMAGRAM Sheat E A S T M A N C H R O M A G R A M 8h*«t 4 20 SHU IS |
E A S T M A N
CHROMAGRAM 8h—t
EASTMAN C H R O M A G R A M S H M M 6066 POLYAMIDE
EASTMAN
I I
JS^JS^I^M,
80 4 ALUMINA
Chromag
am
Sheet.
E A S T M A N C H R O M A G R A M Sheet 60B4 E A S T M A N C H R O M A G R A M Sheet 6 0 8 5
CttLULOSC
Permit use of two decades of paper chromatography work, yet give same speed and higher resolution than j A other cellulose-coated TLC i A media. Credit the purity of | ^ the cellulose with which J we start and the way we purify it further and redistribute the particle size.
Same plant has to put only one layer on each of these. Ought to be pretty dependable sheet for your thin-layer chromatography.
On hand at B &A / CURTIN / FISHER / HOWE & FRENCH / NORTH-STRONG / SARGENT-WELCH / SHANDON / VAN WATERS & ROGERS / WILL
along with EASTMAN
CHROMAGRAM
De-
veloping Apparatus, an easily assembled, f a s t - e q u i l i b r a t i n g chamber that saturates reproducibly with solvent vapor.
EASTMAN
CHROMAGRAM
Devel-
oping Jar, small and inexpensive, right for pre-testing and for the shorter migrations,
While thinking of TLC, send off a request for the detailed recipe book "EASTMAN TLC Visualization Reagents" to Eastman Kodak Company, Eastman Organic Chemicals, Rochester, N.Y. 14650.
Kodak
standard and in which exposure is less than 12 WLM, have until May 1 to file a request for exception. The request, which must state that a plan is being worked out to meet the new requirement, would postpone the effective date of the stringent new radiation exposure standard in that mine until Jan. 1, 1971. Rep. Chet Holifield (D.-Calif.), chairman of the joint committee, doesn't think such a stringent standard is justified by the medical evidence. And he is worried that a number of mines may have to shut down because they can't meet the tough limits. At the hearing's end he asked the Labor Department to postpone enforcement action for a few months. A major part of the argument on desirable exposure levels revolves about a report from the Federal Radiation Council to the former President which recommended the fourWLM limit. The report went to President Johnson on Dec. 27, 1968. Robert H. Finch, President Nixon's Secretary of HEW and automatically chairman of FRC, told the committee that he is undertaking a thorough review of FRC's recommendations. He sees no reason to rescind the new regulation, principally because the real effective date of the rule is nearly two years off—Jan. 1, 1971. He takes no potshots at the departed administration. "From my reconstruction of the radiation review during the fall of 1968," Secretary Finch said, "what is most apparent is the sincere effort of the participants to arrive at exposure levels and effective dates that would be satisfactory to all." According to Secretary Finch, several epidemiological studies on uranium miners will be updated or concluded by spring of 1970. Hence, the uranium review group that he has just appointed will not be able to make recommendations based on the new data until mid-1970. "The time schedule will permit the council to consider, and, if warranted, change the four-WLM recommendation prior to the 1971 effective date," Mr. Finch said. Dr. Gerald F. Tape, an AEC commissioner, told the committee, "We believe that the scientific and technical data currently available fail to provide adequate scientific support for adoption at the present time of an annual standard other than the current 12 WLM." AEC has joined with other members of FRC in supporting "as a policy measure of prudence" the four-WLM limit, to take effect Jan. 1, 1971. "However," Dr. Tape said, "that is based on the assumption that a new review by FRC will turn up new data to confirm or modify the proposed four-WLM standard." MARCH 31, 1969 C&EN 33
