Document QME9zn2dxm4ddj9wMM0GMNBw8

Industrial Hygiene Digest LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS Apnil, 1964 318 Law Requires Regular Fallout Reports. A new California law now requires monthly reports to the public on fallout. The pew law assigns specific responsibility to the Department of Public Health for monitoring radioactive materials in the environment, and it requires the results of such monitoring to be made public at least once each month. While the Department has not routinely reported fallout activity, for several years it has made public any unusual incidences of radioactivity in water, rain, milk, and other foods. It will now record the monthly averages of airborne radioactivity, regional radioactivity in precipitation, strontium-90 and iodine-131 In fresh milk from 10 milksheds, and in other foods as tests occur. Current levels of airborne radioactivity measure about 5 times higher than those recorded just before the resumption of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in 1961. However, the September 1963 levels are 5 to 10 times lower than those of later 1961 and most of 1962. If no further atmospheric tests occur, levels of airborne activity will probably decrease slowly to less than one picocurie per cubic meter. --Am. Soc. Civil Eng., Eng.Div. News 90,1964-6-16(Feb. 1964) 319 Pesticide Developments. The Agriculture Department has issued new labeling regulations which among other things, will require that pesticides bear warning and caution statements in large easy-to-read type on the front panel of the label. In another action, Agriculture withdrew endrin registration for use on tobacco. It notified manufacturers and state regulatory agencies that the pesticide is no longer acceptable for registration for this use. When endrin was registered in 1954, data indicated that the registered use pattern would leave a maximum residue of 2.5 ppm of endrin on tobacco. However, according to Agriculture, recent studies show that a much higher residue-according to some reports, as high as 7.8 ppm--now occurs on tobacco. While there are no data to show that the higher residues are dangerous. Agriculture says, neither are there data to show that this level is hazard- free. --Chem. Eng. News 42, 21 (Feb. 24,1964) 320 Age Discriminatory Hiring Practices to End. President Johnson recently ordered an end to age discriminatory hiring practices by companies that do business with the Government. The order bars Federal contractors and subcontractors from setting maximum age limits for jobs "except upon the basis of a bona fide occupational qualification, retirement plan, or statutory requirement." The order applies to the hiring of men and women for all work done by government contractor s- and not just for the work the contractor is doing for the Government. The order will help end job discrimination against people over 45. --Chem. Eng. News 42, 21 (Feb.24,1964) 03121405 4.