Element of risk: The politics of radon

Book · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:6907732

Cole, L A

The recent history of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approach to managing the risk of indoor radon offers a rich base from which to consider US practice in risk assessment, management, and communication. The biological evidence of risks from high-level exposure to radon is in many ways stronger--and the gap to be spanned by extrapolation from laboratory animal studies to ambient exposures narrower--than for many of the toxic and hazardous air pollutants that have been the focus of EPA regulatory attention. The epidemiological evidence about radon is complicated by a number of confounding variables, but this is often the state of epidemiological evidence. Radon has also been the focus of a considerable amount of research on risk communication. To complete the promising ingredients, disagreements between federal regulators at EPA and managers of federal nuclear programs run by the Department of Energy (DOE) concerning radon from uranium mill tailings, for example, and other issues in radiation health physics offer a rich array of opportunities to explore issues in federal bureaucratic politics. This book provides a straightforward report of much of the development of US policy on indoor radon over the past decade. As such, it gives readers unfamiliar with the evolution of radon regulation an opportunity to come quickly up to speed on many historical details.

• OSTI ID: 6907732
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540130* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
CONTAMINATION
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
FLUIDS
GASES
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INDOOR AIR CONTAMINATION
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
NONMETALS
POLITICAL ASPECTS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
RADON
RARE GASES
REGULATIONS
RISK ASSESSMENT