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New regulations floated by the Environmental Protection Agency are set to increase Americans’ exposure to radiation — because, according to scientific theory now in favor with the Trump administration, radiation is not bad for us. It may even be healthy!
The Associated Press reports this week: “The EPA is pursuing rule changes that experts say would weaken the way radiation exposure is regulated, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight.”
In addition to the proposed rule, the AP reports, the EPA edited its online guidelines, which had cited “some cancer risk from any exposure to radiation,” to say radiation exposures up to the equivalent of 25 chest X-rays “usually result in no harmful health effects, because radiation below these levels is a minor contributor to our overall cancer risk.”
The administration, in a news release and in testimony, is relying on University of Massachusetts at Amherst toxicologist Edward Calabrese and others who “argue that smaller exposures of cell-damaging radiation and other carcinogens can serve as stressors that activate the body’s repair mechanisms and can make people healthier. They compare it to physical exercise or sunlight.”
Read more at Radiation? Chemicals? No big deal, says the Trump administration
