Memo from To:

JOSHUA LEDERBERG Dr J J Cohen

wy 2 ion

EPA radiation standards.

It seems to me that the "standards" are
rapidly becoming irrelevant to the realities
of regulations concerning evident uses of
nuclear energy-- to the point™:that biologists
have Little more to contribute.

In so far as "as low as practicable" in fact
becomes a small part of the fluctuations in
natural background (And I believe we are plaihly
headed that way now), the focus of our attention
ought to be the tradeféffs in

a) medical uses of radiation, and
b) population-siting considerations

I may be wrong, but I am confident that the
"present standards" will be a moot question long
before Nov. 4.

Thank you for the invitation; I don$t think
I can make the meeting (even to expound the
position just stated).

PROFESSOR JOSHUA LEDERBERG
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine

Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305