RE: What would we do with a threshold?

[vchase@bi-pharm.com]

Since Eric is re-opening Pandora's Box on this issue  let me get a
few brief comments in before the rest of you get back from the long weekend
and the electronic torrent floods RADSAFE anew.

To rephrase Eric's question,  I would ask not what we would do with a
threshold, but what would be done FOR us with a threshold.

In using the LNT in conjunction with ALARA as the correct philosophical (and 
political) approach to radiation safety,  we have shot ourselves in the 
foot.   In stating that zero dose equals zero risk,  we have become 
unwitting
proponents of "the only safe dose is no dose".  This is not a view shared by
other safety professions,  such as industrial hygene where a person can be
exposed indefinitely to a chemical compound below a certain level.  In other
words,  the person is "safe".

I, therefore, disagree with Eric "that the primary incentive of arguing for 
a
threshold is to hold the line against further ratcheting down the dose 
limits
definition of a "safe" level".  If a threshold exists,  the primary 
incentive for the
radiation protection community would be the ability to use the word "safe"
when discussing a dose below a certain level.

Current acceptance of the LNT allows lawyers, politicians, scientists and
regulators to proclaim that there is no safe level of radiation.  It allows 
the EPA, especially, (as presented by them at the San Antonio meeting),  to
proclaim that the correct approach to radiation safety is the most 
conservative approach and that approach is the LNT.

Don't get me wrong.  I am a proponent of ALARA and make liberal use of it in
radiation safety applications and calculatons.  However,  not having a
scientifically verified numerical quantity linked to the word "safe" leaves 
reasonable assessments open to unreasonable interpretation by the
politically motivated or the technically uninitiated.  It makes our best 
intentions in promoting the ALARA principle into the worst practical joke we 
ever played on ourselves.

Regards,
Vince Chase
vchase@bi-pharm.com
Radiation Safety Officer
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent
the opinions policies or practices of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.