[ RadSafe ] News from the ICRP Web site

[Fred Dawson]

News from the ICRP Web site

The work of several ICRP Task Groups preparing 'Foundation Documents', 
supporting the coming next fundamental Recommendations of the ICRP, is 
nearing completion. A background description is

available here.
http://www.icrp.org/draft_foundation.asp

Draft reports are now posted here, or will be posted soon, for consultation 
according to the following schedule:

Draft report:   Consultation ends:
Optimisation of radiological protection.pdf   10 July 2005
Assessing dose to the representative individual.pdf   10 July 2005
Health risks attributable to radiation - to be posted soon   To be announced
Dosimetric quantities - to be posted soon   To be announced
Reference animals and plants - to be posted soon   To be announced

Please submit comments here on any or all of these draft documents!


THE MARCH 2005 PARIS MEETING OF THE MAIN COMMISSION OF ICRP

DECISIONS FOLLOWING THE CONSULTATION ON THE PROPOSED 2005 RECOMMENDATIONS

http://www.icrp.org/docs/The_March2005Paris_Meeting.doc

The consultation exercise on the proposed 2005 recommendations resulted in 
nearly 200 responses and amounts to some 600 pages of written text. Many of 
the comments arise because the Foundation Documents have not yet been put 
out for consultation. The consultation on Foundation Documents will now take 
place during the summer of 2005 and they should be revised, if necessary, to 
be approved if all goes well at the Geneva meeting of the Commission in 
September 2005.

THE FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS

The Commission has approved 5 foundation documents for web consultation with 
the intention that they be posted for a period starting in April until 
mid-July. The documents are:-

· Biological and Epidemiological Information on Health Risks Attributable to 
Ionizing Radiation: A Summary of Judgements for the Purposes of Radiological 
Protection.

· The Basis for Dosimetric Quantities Used in Radiological Protection.

· Assessing Doses to the Representative Individual for the Purpose of 
Radiation Protection of the Individual.

· The Optimization of Protection: Broadening the Process.

· Environmental Protection: the Concept and Use of Reference Animals and 
Plants.

These documents are seen as essential to underpin the Commission's 
recommendations. In addition, two new Foundation documents are thought to be 
necessary as a result of the consultation exercise.

Firstly, concerns were expressed in the consultation exercise that the 
Commission was perceived as having abandoned a risk-based system in setting 
numerical values for constraints, and the use of comparisons with natural 
background. It is now proposed that a new addition to the Recommendations be 
made with an updated version of what was Annex C in Publication 60. That 
Annex was on the 'Bases for judging the significance of the effects of 
radiation' and developed the attributable lifetime probabilities of death 
due to exposure and compared them with various non-radiation fatality rates. 
The Annex demonstrated that ICRP does not have a simple risk-based system, 
but rather that there is a complex multi-attribute assessment of the 
implications of exposure and a valid comparison with the natural background 
radiation levels. It is proposed to update this work to use the latest risk 
projection models from the Biology Foundation Document.

Fred Dawson
New Malden
Surrey. KT3 5BP
England

020 8287 2176