Re: KLM-flight and Tc-generator

["Wim Passchier" <wfpas@worldaccess.nl>]

The following experience may be relevant to more general discussions on the
list. This morning I was contact by a newspaper journalist on the radiation
exposure on a KLM-flight. The journalist said he was informed that
radiation doses cause by a leaky technetiumgenerator may have been of the
order of 1 millisievert and he asked me what I thought of it. I replied
that I thought such doses rather high. Then he asked me what I would do if
I would have received such a dose. My reply was: do nothing, continue life
as usual. At the end of the interview he asked me about the discrepancy
between my two statements. That was fortunate, because it gave me the
opportunity to point out the difference between loss of control and health
risk. If we have bound ourselves to keep doses (far) below 1 mSv, reaching
a dose level of about 1 mSv implies loss of (quality) control which is, at
least in principle, a serious matter and should trigger investigation. But
loosing control fortunately does not always mean running a serious health
risk. To distinguish these two subjects may be helpful in risk
communication.
Wim Passchier, PhD
Dep. Executive Director, Health Council of the Netherlands
PO Box 1236, NL 2280 CE RIJSWIJK
tel +31 70 340 6262, fax +31 70 340 7523
e-mail wf.passchier@gr.nl
private: Severij 1, NL 3155 BR MAASLAND
please note new numbers (from April 5, 1997)!!
tel +31 10 599 0247, fax +31 10 599 0249
e-mail wfpas@worldaccess.nl