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"The rule seeks to ensure EPA does not rely on

Feb. 6, 2018 by Lena Webb

"The rule seeks to ensure EPA does not rely on unproven claims such as that radiation poses no health risk and that it protects public health and the environment," Calabrese said.

The proposed rule would require that every regulatory agency must implement a national level of radiation screening, known as "toxins screen," and the proposed rule would require that the federal government require that states provide their own radiation screening.

In April, the EPA released new guidelines for determining if a particular type of radiation is "toxic." The guidelines include a description of the type of radiation and a description of how the agency should evaluate health risks.

While the proposed rule is not specific in any way, it does suggest that EPA could make an exception for certain types of radiation—such as low-dose radiation that occurs in high-risk areas or high-health-related radiation that occurs in the home.

As far as regulatory agencies are concerned, the rule is the same as the federal government's current radiation screening guidelines for low-dose radiation. The proposed rule would essentially be an exception for these regulations, with the exception that EPA would continue to require the states to give their own radiation screening information.

If the EPA wants to go to a state to do its own radiation screening, the state could offer its own form of radiation screening. In that scenario, it could not use its own information regarding the health risks of radiation exposure to the entire population of the state.

However, an individual state may need to provide the information to the EPA for the state to decide whether to provide coverage.

The EPA would still need to give the state a letter from the EPA stating that it would comply with the rule if it did not.

While EPA currently provides a list of "best practices" to meet its health and environment responsibilities, Calabrese says the agency is taking that information further—or at least to a greater extent than it has previously done, in some cases.

The proposed rule would not be the last, Calabrese said.

In February of 2015, the EPA issued the first scientific advisory regarding the safety of high dose radiation. The EPA's National Institute of Health (NINH) issued a similar advisory to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January of 2015.

The NINH's scientific advisory stated that "situational exposures of humans and animals to low-dose exposure should be measured in the general public," and said that health risks, including cancers and diabetes, are "extremely likely to occur in