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REVIEW OF DRAFT REVISED BLUE BOOK ON ESTIMATING CANCER RISKS FROM EXPOSURE TO IONIZING RADIATION
Citation:
REVIEW OF DRAFT REVISED BLUE BOOK ON ESTIMATING CANCER RISKS FROM EXPOSURE TO IONIZING RADIATION.
Impact/Purpose:
This revised version of the document, "Estimating Radiogenic Cancer Risks" will describe the updated methodology and present new age-, organ-, and gender-specific risk estimates. This supports a major risk management initiative to improve the basis on which radiation risk decisions are made. It reflects an attempt to characterize risks where there are substantial uncertainties. The outcome will improve our ability to assess risks well into the future and will strengthen EPA’s overall capability for assessing and managing radiation risks.
Description:
In 1994, EPA published a report, referred to as the “Blue Book,” which lays out EPA’s current methodology for quantitatively estimating radiogenic cancer risks. A follow-on report made minor adjustments to the previous estimates and presented a partial analysis of the uncertainties in the numerical estimates. In 2006, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the health risks from exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation. Cosponsored by the EPA and several other Federal agencies, Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation BEIR VII Phase 2 (BEIR VII) primarily addresses cancer and genetic risks from low doses of low-LET radiation. In the draft White Paper: Modifying EPA Radiation Risk Models Based on BEIR VII (White Paper), ORIA proposed changes in EPA’s methodology for estimating radiogenic cancers, based on the contents of BEIR VII and some ancillary information. For the most part, it proposed to adopt the models and methodology recommended in BEIR VII; however, certain modifications and expansions are considered to be desirable or necessary for EPA’s purposes. EPA sought advice from the Agency’s Science Advisory Board on the application of BEIR VII and on issues relating to these modifications and expansions in the Advisory on EPA’s Draft White Paper: Modifying EPA Radiation Risk Models Based on BEIR VII (record # 83044). The SAB issued its Advisory on Jan. 31, 2008 (EPA-SAB-08-006). As a result, ORIA is implementing changes in the current methodology through a draft revised Blue Book (dated December, 2008) which is currently undergoing review by the SAB. The draft Blue Book presents new age-, organ-, and gender-specific radiogenic risk estimates, their scientific basis, and the updated methodology for deriving the estimates. The draft Blue Book was presented to the Radiation Advisory Committee (RAC) of the SAB in March, 2009. The RAC completed a quality review draft (for revising the Blue Book) on August 20, 2009.
URLs/Downloads:
EPA-SAB-10-001-REPORT ON BB.PDF (PDF, 50 pp, 317 KB, about PDF)EPA Radiogenic Cancer Risk Models and Projections for the U.S. Population (PDF, NA pp, KB, about PDF)
Blue Book
EPA-SAB-10-001_RESPONSE_03-03-2010.PDF (PDF, 14 pp, 4880 KB, about PDF)