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ALARA and "what is safe enough"



Apologize,  my last message was not identified



Subject: Re: ALARA and "what is safe enough"





>and is that true"



Take your own conclusion:





a) Safety Limits: Limits on operational parameters within which an

authorized facility has been shown to be safe.

b) Limits apply to the total exposure of individuals from all sources under

control.

c) The ICRP has introduced the concept of a constraint which is a

restriction of individual dose from a single source and is used in

optimisation. A constraint is therefore seen as a prospective upper bound to

optimisation that ensures the risk from that source is acceptable and the

total risk does not approach the unacceptable. It follows that there is no

single value of a constraint but rather that there are practice-specific or

even equipment-specific constraints. Values will be different as between,

say, a nuclear power plant and a hospital nuclear medicine diagnostic

department.

ALARA was responsible by the reductions in doses in occupational exposures

and medical exposures over the last few decades.



Jose Julio Rozental

joseeroze@netvision.net.il

Israel





----- Original Message -----

From: Goff, Tom <Tom.Goff@wipp.ws>

To: 'Sandy Perle' <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>; <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 4:10 PM

Subject: RE: ALARA and "what is safe enough"





I remember a few HPS meetings ago a presentation where the legal "Standard

of care" is not ALARA but maintaining personnel within legal limits.  Does

anyone else recall that presentation and is that true"



Tom Goff



-----Original Message-----

From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET]

Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2002 2:17 PM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: ALARA and "what is safe enough"





> The question should be "What is safe enough  (ie ALARA)?" not "What is

> safe?".



One can not equate ALARA and "what is safe enough". They are not synonymous.

In

facility A the ALARA goal need not be the same as facility B or C or D.

ALARA was

never deemed to be considered equivalent to what is considered to be a safe

level.

Please also note that the NRC (rightly so) removed the prescriptive levels

of what

was to be considered ALARA in 10CFR20, as was once proposed.



When we as a profession start to promulgate the concept of ALARA and being

safe,

we run the serious mistake of also equating these 2 concepts as being the

basis for

litigation claims being judged valid or not. If you are not deemed being

ALARA, then

you, by your own definition, are therefore not treating your staff, or

fellow workers, as

working in a safe environment.



Please don't equate the 2 concepts. One can determine what is ALARA for

their own

facility, knowing what the environment is. One can not deem what is safe. If

they can,

I've never met that person. Unless one considers zero to be safe, and there

are

those who would state, and have stated, that zero is not safe, that there

needs to be

some level of exposure.



Food for thought?

**************************************************************************

Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100



Director, Technical Extension 2306

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service Fax:(714) 668-3149

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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