Category: Radiation

CBG & Other Groups Oppose EPA’s Proposed Huge Increase in Permissible Radioactivity in Drinking Water

Read the group letter by clicking here.

On December 5, 2015, OMB received for review from the US EPA proposed changes to its Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for responding to radiological releases. Press reports indicate that the proposals would markedly increase the levels of allowable radioactive contaminants in drinking water. CBG, along with other groups, wrote to inform the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs that such an effort would be met with a firestorm of controversy, and urge that the proposals be rejected. The groups also requested a meeting/conference call with senior staff tasked with the review.…

Over 100 Groups Call on EPA to Withdraw Dramatically Weakened Radiation Guides

Over 100 environmental organizations have called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to withdraw EPA’s controversial new Protective Action
Guides (PAGs), which would allow exposure to very high doses from radiation releases before
government would take action to protect the public.

The PAGs are intended to guide the response to nuclear power reactor accidents (like Fukushima
in Japan, Chernobyl in Ukraine and Three Mile Island in the U.S.), “dirty bomb” explosions,
radioactive releases from nuclear fuel and weapons facilities, nuclear transportation accidents,
and all other radioactive releases.

Although official estimates of health risks from radiation have gone …