Why isn the 1981 CPRHSA unenforceable?
The Consumer-Patient Radiation Health & Safety Act of 1981 was lobbied by the ASRT for more than 15 years. When the bill was on the Senate floor for the final vote a political bargain was struck to ensure the bill’s passage and the enforcement mechanism was stripped out in an amendment. This law directed HHS to develop regulations specifying the education and credentialing of radiographers, radiation therapists, dental radiographers, sonographers and nuclear medicine technologists, but there are no legally enforceable penalties for states which chose not to comply by adopting the education and credentialing standards. In 1985 ASRT initiated legal action requiring HHS promulgate regulations (42 CFR 75), however states face no penalty for not meeting the HHS regulations and they are now considered to be “federally-recommended guidelines” for states to follow.
