In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements wrestle with the radiation standards question, and the National Academy of Sciences has been called upon periodically since the 1950's to weigh in with its committee, called the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation committee.
"For today's children and young people, digital culture and social media are an integral part of life … this has the potential to significantly increase stress and to amplify the effects of bullying," the committee's report says.
Two models were used to estimate the ratio of screening benefits vs radiation risks: the micro-simulation analysis model MISCAN (de Koning et al, 1995; Groenewoud et al, 2004) that estimates the benefits of mammography screening, and the radiation risk model of the 7th Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation committee (BEIR-VII) (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2006).
"Cancer can be considered a chronic disease, in part because of the serious consequences and persistent nature of some of cancer's late effects," the committee said.
The policies, which include the EU's emissions trading system and renewable energy targets, do not adequately take into account the effects of land-use changes, the committee argues.
What would be the practical effect of having that committee around again a split congress?
The letter will also detail the immediate effect of the normalisation committee, the identity of its members, its mandate and its timescale.
For a more comprehensive assessment of the accident's impact on health, Fukushima residents will have to wait for the UN scientific committee on the effects of atomic radiation to publish its findings in May 2013.
In a separate interim report, the UN's scientific committee on the effects of radiation (Unscear) said that none of the deaths of six plant workers since last March was related to radiation.
Visiting the Grand-Synthe camp close to Dunkirk on Monday, the Labour MP Yvette Cooper said she would hold an emergency inquiry as chair of the home affairs select committee on the effects of the closure of the Dubs scheme.
