The Problem The control of radiation by legislative means in the United States is a complicated problem, all the many facets of which cannot be shown in one short paper.2 However, to present a discussion of some of the history, the philosophy, the progress to date, and the proposals of the National Committee on Radiation Protection seems a very worth-while endeavor. Only in the last few years have any serious efforts toward legislative control of radiation been made. Up until then, all efforts had been directed toward educating the users of radiation and developing safe codes of practice for voluntary compliance (1). The first efforts in the field of radiation protection date back to about 1920, but it was not until the end of the decade then beginning that the first recognized codes of protection practice appeared. During the intervening years, most of the work was concerned with finding out what the problem was and how to cope with it. The first international steps were taken in 1928, at the Second Inte...