ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL

BOARD

February

8,

1990

VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 89—66

(Variance)

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AGENCY

)

Respondent.

DISSENTING OPINION

(by J.D. Dumelle,

B.

Forcade and M.

Nardulli):

Radium in drinking water

is

a source of ionizing radiation

to the tissue of persons who ingest

it.

If a single cell is

affected and becomes cancerous and if the body’s defenses do not

eliminate the incipient tumor then cancer will occur.

On January 17,

1990 the Chicago Sun-Times carried an

editorial titled “Radiation

risks prove real”.

The first

paragraph states:

The latest findings on the health risks of

being exposed

to low levels of radiation are

not encouraging.

A National Academy of

Sciences panel recently concluded that the

health risks

of being exposed to low-level

radiation have been badly understated.

The

risk of cancer,

for example,

is three to four

times higher than previously estimated a

decade ago by the academy.

It seems quite possible that when the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency re—evaluates its drinking water standard for

radium it may well tighten the standard instead of loosening it.

A denial of the lifting of restricted status would mean that

additional persons would not be subjected

to water containing

radium

in excess of the present Federal standard which

is now

apparently 3—4 times more dangerous

then was thought.

~

Jacob

D. Dumelle

il

orcade

ichael

~.

Nardulli

Board Member

Board Member

Board Member

108—41

---

—2—

I,

Dorothy

M. Gunn,

Clerk

of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board,

hereby certify that the above Di senting Opinion was

entered on

the

/~/~

day of

____________

,

1990.

Dorothy M~Gunn, Clerk

Illinois ~oi1ution

Control Board

I 1)A--~2