US EPA Seeks Comments on 'Radiation Protection Guidance for Diagnostic and Interventional X-Ray Procedures'

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would like to announce the availability of Federal Guidance Report No. 14, "Radiation Protection Guidance for Diagnostic and Interventional X-Ray Procedures." EPA is soliciting public comment for 60 days. This guidance, when final, will replace Federal Guidance Report No. 9, "Radiation Protection Guidance for Diagnostic X-rays," which was released in October 1976. The recommendations contained in this report represent consensus judgment of an interagency Medical Work Group for the practice of diagnostic and interventional imaging by federal agencies.

The non-binding consensus guidance, when final, will provide federal medical, dental, and veterinary facilities engaged in radiography, interventional fluoroscopy, computed tomography, or bone densitometry with practical advice for the appropriate use of diagnostic and interventional x-ray procedures. Likewise, EPA hopes that non-governmental health care providers will also find this guidance useful, but there is no legal obligation for them to make use of it in any way.

The Federal Register Notice of Availability contains information on accessing the document and providing comments to EPA. More information about the draft guidance can be found here.

If you generate a lengthy list of comments, we invite you to consider providing them by using this table, though this is not a requirement. If you choose to use this table, you may upload the file directly into the docket at regulations.gov.

Of course, you may provide comments to EPA in any of the methods described in the above referenced Federal Register Notice. To help us identify the text that you are referring to in your comments, please refer to the consecutive line numbers in the PDF version of the guidance.

For more information about Federal Guidance Report No. 14, please contact Michael Boyd with the US EPA at (202) 343-9395 or boyd.mike@epa.gov.