Re: Dear Edith and Norm....

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu>]

Michael --

You are right on target with this statement (among others) which strikes a
rather sore spot with me:

>As you can see below, I have *other* affiliations.  I am an operational
health physicist. There are many within >the policy-setting organizations
(NCRP, ICRP, IAEA) who have never been in an operational setting where >they
have to (or are fortunate enough to) work with radiation workers on a daily
basis, much less ever having >to explain the LNT model to someone or explain
why they shouldn't be concerned about contracting cancer >from their 15 mrem
dose.

I have tried for years to no avail to convince NCRP that more of their
members should have operational experience.  All pleas have fallen on deaf
ears.  Relatively few persons with operational HP experience are nominated
to NCRP, and fewer still are chosen.  In 1989, as President Elect of HPS, I
wrote to then NCRP President Warren Sinclair suggesting that more
operational types were needed on NCRP and providing him with a dozen names
of potential members, all of whom held doctorates (they like that) and all
but one of whom were CHP's.  The list included persons from a broad variety
of backgrounds, including my old friend Marshall Parrott from the Oregon
regfulatory program.  It was months before I got a reply that basically said
that they didn't understand what the problem was.

Ron Kathren


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