AW: [ RadSafe ] European Union (EU) Drinking Water Limit for Tritium

Wed May 23 07:47:17 CDT 2007

Can anyone explain to me,
why Franz is on a radsafe list of "persona non grata" (it has nothing 
to do with radiation protection). I think Franz has a lot to 
contribute.

best regards,
Henk Westenbrink
h.westenbrink at amc.nl # 020-56 65752
RSO
Central B-laboratory (F1-149)
AMC  Amsterdam

----- Original Message -----
From: Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 11:43 pm
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] European Union (EU) Drinking Water Limit for 
Tritium

> Dear Leo,
> 
> Yes, I am a European collegue and even more important I have been 
> working on
> the radioactivity of drinking water for probably twenty years. On 
> the other
> hand I am a kind of "persona non grata" on RADSAFE, because my 
> messages are
> monitored and some times are distributed on the RADSAFE list up to 
> two days
> later. The recent attempt of a US company for recruiting RSO's for 
> the US
> Army for duty in Iraq was not at all delayed. So do not be 
> surprised, that
> you will receive my mail to you more or less immediately and - if 
> at all - a
> second time with a large delay via the RADSAFE list.
> 
> The EU drinking water directive has no "limits" for radioactive
> contamination. The indicative dose given excludes - please be 
> careful - not
> only T, K-40 and radon, but also radon progeny!!!! I suppose you 
> know, that
> Po-210 and Pb-210 have very high dose conversion factors. There is a
> recommendation for the member states to set MPC for Rn-222, Pb-210 
and
> Po-210. A few member states have followed this recommendation, the
> Scandinavian ones had them already before in force. They are not 
> uniform,but differ from member state to member state. 
> Considerations on setting
> MPC's are done in a few EU Member States. 
> 
> Now to the "Indicative Concentration" of Tritium. Here I have to 
> disappointyou -there is (in my opinion) no scientific background 
> for the 100 Bq/L.
> There was a severe quarrel between the European Parliament and the 
> EuropeanCommission, which lasted for years, concerning the 
> indicative concentration
> of tritium. Especially the green fraction of the European 
> Parliament did not
> really care about doses, but as is known very well from other 
> issues, they
> wanted to reduce the "numbers" to sell this as their success and 
> achievementfor protecting the population. They produced numbers of 
> 75 Bq/l, to be
> reduced to 25 Bq/l within a few years. Needless to say, that in 
> Europe you
> cannot find nowadays any drinking water which would even come 
> close to 25
> Bq/l. In Austria all drinking water is below 2 Bq/l. 
> 
> Having said this, I can only answer to your last question, that 
> there is no
> EU dose limit for drinking water. The concept of indicative dose 
> is the
> following: In case the indicative dose would be exceeded (very 
> unlikely in
> European drinking water supplies), then the competent authorities 
> have to
> decide, whether countermeasures are necessary and the situation of 
> the water
> supply (nitrate, arsenic, coli-bacteria etc. etc.) has to be taken 
> intoconsideration. 
> 
> I hope I could express the situation in my bad English! Feel free 
> to contact
> me again in case of any further questions!
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Franz
> 
> 
> Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
> MinRat i.R.
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Wien/Vienna
> AUSTRIA
> 
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] 
> Im Auftrag
> von Leo M. Lowe
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 22. Mai 2007 21:59
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] European Union (EU) Drinking Water Limit for 
> Tritium
> Some questions for our European colleagues:
> 
> I understand that the EU drinking water limits are based on an 
> "indicator dose" of 0.1 mSv/y, excluding tritium, K-40 and radon, 
> and 
> an indicator parameter of 100 Bq/L for tritium.
> 
> What is the basis for the 100 Bq/L value for tritium?  How was it 
> derived? Is it just an indicator that non-background sources are 
> potentially present?  Is there a readily-available citation that 
> describes this?
> 
> Also, if 0.1 mSv/y is just an "indicator dose", what is the EU 
> dose 
> limit for drinking water?
> 
> Feel free to respond directly to me.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Leo M. Lowe, Ph.D., P.Phys.
> 
> SENES Consultants Limited
> llowe at senes.ca
> www.senes.ca
> Tel:  905-764-9380
> Fax: 905-764-9386
> 
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