Before leaving office, Bush approved new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radiation releases
Rules dramatically weaken public protections.

by Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Global Research, January 21, 2009
Nuclear Information and Resource Service


Just before leaving office, the Bush Administration approved new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radiation releases that dramatically weaken public protections. In particular, the new PAGs would permit radioactivity in drinking water hundreds to millions of times higher than longstanding EPA standards.

The PAGs weren't able to published in the Federal Register before Inauguration, but unless the new Obama Administration pulls them back immediately, they could be published in the next few days.

The Order issued by the White House Tuesday to suspend all rulemaking activities until the new Administration can review them might be interpreted by Bush holdovers at EPA as strictly only covering formal rulemaking. In order to avoid rulemaking legal requirements, the Bush Administration issued these new standards as Protective Action Guides instead. So it is critical to get EPA to immediately pull the PAGs back from the Federal Register.

Please call the EPA Administrator's office at 202-564-4700 today and leave a message, asking that the Radiation Protective Action Guides be withdrawn immediately from publication in the Federal Register.

For more information, see http://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/ ... 012109.pdf
or contact Dan Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge the Gap at 831 336-8003

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=11939



Press Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Contact: Daniel Hirsch [Committee to Bridge the Gap] (831) 336-8003; Luke Eshleman [PEER] (202)
265-7337


RADIATION EXPOSURE LIMITS WEAKENED IN DEPARTING BUSH MOVE
Huge Hikes in Allowable Radioactivity in Drinking Water, Air and Soil


Washington, DC — Late last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved to dramatically relax public protections against radioactive releases, according to the Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG) and
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The new standards permit public exposure to radiation levels vastly higher than EPA had previously deemed unacceptably dangerous.

Outgoing Acting EPA Administrator Marcus Peacock signed off on the new Protective Action Guide on Thursday (January 15th) but the late signing prevented the document from being printed in the Federal
Register before Inauguration Day. CBG and PEER are calling on the incoming Obama administration to withdraw it from the Federal Register before it is published within the next few days.

The radiation “PAGsâ€