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23 July 2008

Answer to Question #1826 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Historical Issues/Applications

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

What standards or regulations (possibly OSHA) were in place in the early '60s regarding protection of industrial workers from radiation?

On January 29, 1957, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), predecessor to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, published its "Standards for Protection Against Radiation" in the Federal Register (22 FR 548). It was later revised and regulations tightened in 1960. The occupational exposure limits were as follows:

Whole body, head and trunk, active blood-forming organs, gonads, or lens of eye: 5 rem/yr (avg), 12 rem/yr (max), 3 rem/13 weeks (Note: the 5 rem per year whole-body dose was included in the 1960 revisions which became effective on January 1, 1961. The 1957 regs allowed up to 15 rem per year.)
Skin of whole body, thyroid: 30 rem/yr or 10 rem/13 weeks
Hands and forearms, feet and ankles: 75 rem/yr or 25 rem/13 wks
Bone: 0.1 ug ²²⁶Ra or its biological equivalent (body burden)
Other organs: 15 rem/yr or 5 rem/13 wks

In addition, the Federal Radiation Council (FRC) was established in 1960 to advise the President on radiation issues and provide nonbinding guidance to federal agencies on radiation standards, including occupational standards. It was established in response to the growing public concern over radiation safety in the late 1950s, largely as a result of the fallout controversy. The FRC's recommendations did not differ from the AEC's Part 20 in any substantive way. There is quite a bit of discussion on Part 20 and the FRC in the book Controlling the Atom by NRC Historian J. Samuel Walker and George T. Mazuzan (for sale through the Government Printing Office, ISBN No. 0-16-049075-8). Cynthia G. Jones, PhD

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