Re: ALARA What?

["Michael S Ford" <MFORD@pantex.com>]

Jose,

The point in my statement to Glenn was (and to you now) —- if you view Optimization as the minimization of radiological exposures, regardless of what the total exposures are, how do you then justify an ALARA Protective Measure when the total exposure is only a fraction of the annual background dose and not a multiple of it?  As would be the case in high background regions throughout the world.

This is something international standards completely ignore.  How do you say to a Rad Worker that you are "lowering" his risk of cancer by maintaining his doses at 5 or 10 mSv when the dose he and his family receive from background radiation is 2 to 5 times higher (in high background regions)?  Clearly, there is no epidemiological data in these areas to indicate higher incidence of cancer or shortened life span.  Actually, the evidence is to the the contrary of the cancer risk factors stated in ICRP for populations within these high background regions.

Do we act like the EPA and tell folks that the radiation in their homes and natural environment is killing them (a la Radon), even when there's no evidence to support it OR (more importantly) evidence to the contrary?

v/r
Michael
TRAB & "Operational Guy"
mford@pantex.com

>>> joseroze%netvision.net.il wrote on 02 Apr 00 7:39:45 AM >>>
>>M. Ford wrote:
>
> Glenn,
>
> I can imagine (somehow) that if you were to be employed by a nuc.
materials company in Ramsar, Iran that they might think it rather ridiculous
that you'd set a dose limit of 1 rem when an average person in that locale
gets 4-5 rem just hanging around the house.
>

Standards apply to practices and interventions. Any exposure whose magnitude
or likelihood is essentially unamenable to control through the requirements
of the Standards is deemed to be excluded from the Standards, example:
exposure from K-40 in the body, from cosmic radiation at the surface of the
earth and from unmodified concentrations of radionuclides in most raw
materials.
I can't talk about Ramsar, however I can talk a lot on the high
concentration areas in Brazil, including the areas where grow our delicious
Brazil Nuts, (castanha do Para in Portuguese) with high concentration of 40K
and Ra-226. I was responsible during many years (18) to license all users of
radioactive material, and to implement Radiation Safety Standards in Brazil.
All licensed practices in any area, including those areas of high
concentration should follow the recommendation of the Standards and to apply
constraints in the process of optimization.

Jose de Julio Rozental
joseroze@netvision.net.il 
Israel

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