The Obama administration's decision to deny a petition seeking stronger protections for first responders and other workers from exposure to corrosive dust is dividing industry representatives and the whistleblower group that petitioned for the stronger protections, according to recently filed comments.
November 15, 2026
The Environmental Protection Agency and environmentalists are objecting to petitions before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that would significantly weaken protective exposure levels to radiation by discarding the long-standing model correlating increasing radiation doses with increasing cancer risks and replacing it with one that would deem certain levels of radiation harmless and even helpful.
Activist groups are objecting to petitions before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that would significantly weaken protective exposure levels to radiation by discarding a long-standing model correlating increasing radiation doses with increasing cancer risks and replacing it with one that would deem certain levels of radiation harmless and even helpful.
Environmental groups plan to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to expand its ongoing revision of its National Contingency Plan (NCP) oil spill regulations to address responses to both conventional oil spills that the agency was already examining as well as spills of unconventional fuels, such as tar sands oil and volatile shale oil – a push that occurs partly because of concerns about chemical-related health risks to workers in oil spill response.
