RE: One last comment on Irradiation

["Charles Meyer" <CMEYER@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us>]

Date:          Tue, 17 Dec 96 07:54:31 -0600
Reply-to:      radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
From:          Wieland@nepo1.iaea.or.at (Wieland Patricia)
To:            Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Subject:       RE: One last comment on Irradiation



Dear all,

May I remind you of the internationally recommended basic principles of 
radiation protection.
In particular the justification of a practice, briefly:

"A practice that entails or that could entail exposure to radiation should 
only be adopted if it yields sufficient benefit to exposed individuals or to 
society to outweigh the radiation detriment it causes or could cause".
IAEA - SS n. 115,  1994

This principle shall be taken into account by the national regulatory bodies 
to authorize a practice  that entails or that could entail exposure to 
radiation.

In other words, although food irradiation has a lot of known advantages, 
RADIATION SAFETY  has to be considered always. The practice should be 
adopted if it is suitable and there is no other "non-radioactive" option 
available.

Patricia Wieland
IAEA
e-mail: wieland@nepo1.iaea.or.at

Seems to me that the IAEA has been encouraging the development of 
food irradiation technology, thus implying that it meets their " 
prime directive".  After all it's not potentially starving people we're 
talking about here folks.  This is no time to get wrapped around 
idiotlogical axles.  A pressing question is how do you provide a safe 
working environment for an irradiator in a country that doesn't have 
the infrastructure( I dislike using that word, but it's the only one 
that comes to mind) to effectively regulate the use of the large 
quantities of radioactive materials necessary.  This is another area 
where I believe the IAEA has an opportunity to provide a valuable 
service.
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<>    Charles R. (Russ) Meyer                  <>
<> Email: cmeyer@tdh.state.tx.us           <> 
<>     Phone:(512)834-6688                       <>
<>        Fax:(512)834-6654                        <>
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