The paper presents a general review of public safety standards as adapted by the nuclear weapons testing program in the United States, and the impact of these changing standards on the nuclear testing program itself. The review notes the importance of improvements in diagnostic instrumentation and methodologies from a relatively simple degree of sophistication to their current high level. Use of the improved methodologies uncovered a serious oversight affecting human exposure, namely, that of not recognizing the relative importance of all potential transport/dosimetric pathways for risk assessment.