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Question 414: This question refers to the answer to
Question 6 §20.1201. This answer does not directly answer
the implied question, which is, "if a person is assessed a
history of 5 rem or more for the current year, is that
person permitted to receive any occupational dose?"
Implied in the answer is that if monitoring is not
required, that person can receive an occupational dose,
presumably up to 500 mrem for an adult. Conceptually, this
is not consistent with normal protection standards, i.e.,
"if you don't measure it, it is not there" is not a
normally accepted practice. The Commission allowance for
an explicit 100 mrem (SECY-90-387, November 26, 1990) would
seem a much more reasonable approach. Both of these
positions appear to conflict with the answer to Question
113 in the third set. Hopefully, a position similar to that
taken for the declared pregnant woman with a pre-existing
dose history will be taken. That is, an additional small
increment of exposure is not biologically significant.
Answer: "If a person is assessed a history of 5 rem or
more for the current year", that individual is not
permitted to receive any additional occupational dose
during that year (except a planned special exposure). The
answer to Question 6 does not imply that the individual can
receive any additional occupational dose (except in a
planned special exposure). As noted in the preamble to
revised Part 20 (56 FR 23369, second column), "the
allowance of an additional 1 rem per quarter following an
exposure in excess of the limits has been deleted" from the
final rule published on May 21, 1991. The answer to
Question 6 is consistent with the rule and the answer to
Question 113, which states that "...if the 5 rem CEDE was
received during the current year, this individual would not
be allowed any further exposure for the balance of the
year." (Reference: 10 CFR 20.1201, 10 CFR 20.2104).