EPA Withholds Information on Dirty Bomb Report

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EPA Withholds Information on Dirty Bomb Report

Feb. 6, 2013

By Douglas P. Guarino

Global Security Newswire

A New York City police officer participates in an April 2011 "dirty bomb" drill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to release information relative to a forthcoming report expected to recommend that cleanup following a radiological attack need not be as thorough as required at other contaminated sites (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews).

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is declining to release information on a controversial federal report that could lead people living near the site of a radiological “dirty bomb” attack to face greater cancer risks than what the agency would normally allow.
The information – which includes presentations two EPA staffers made to the panel of experts that is drafting the new report – could reveal whether the officials are speaking out against their own agency’s long-held health standards, observers say. The report is expected to suggest guidelines under which as many as one in 23 people would be expected to develop cancer from long-term radiation exposure, a sharp contrast to the EPA standard of one in 10,000 in a worst-case scenario.

http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/epa-withholds-information-dirty-bomb-report-amid-cancer-concerns/