Radiation regulation

["Karam, Andrew" <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>]

There is a timely article in this month's Physics Today (which just arrived
in my mailbox).  It is written by Zbigniew Jaworowski (formerly of UNSCEAR)
and is titled Radiation Rick and Ethics.  I have not yet read it all, but
the final section ("A Practical Alternative") is worth including here:

"There is an emerging awareness that radiation protection should be based on
the principle or a practical threshold-one below which induction of
detectable radiogenic cancer or genetic effects is not expected.  Below such
a threshold, radiation doses should not require regulation.  Nor is any
regulation required for extreme levels, such as those experienced at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where dose rates were extremely high.

The practical threshold to be proposed could be based on epidemiological
data from exposures in medicine, the nuclear industry, and regions with high
natural radiation.  The current population dose limit of 1 mSv per year
could then be changed to 10 mSv per year or more.  Individual doses could be
evaluated at any level below the practical threshold, but
radiation-protection authorities would be required to intervene only if
individual doses above the threshold were involved.  Adopting a practical
threshold would be an important step taken toward dealing with radiation
rationally and toward regaining the public's acceptance of radioactivity and
radiation as blessings for mankind."

Andy

Andrew Karam, CHP              (716) 275-1473 (voice)
Radiation Safety Officer          (716) 275-3781 (office)
University of Rochester           (716) 256-0365 (fax)
601 Elmwood Ave. Box HPH   Rochester, NY  14642

Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu
http://Intranet.urmc.rochester.edu/RadiationSafety

There is no Chase so pleasant, methinks, as to drive a Thought, by good
conduct, from one end of the World to the other; and never to lose sight
of it till it fall into Eternity, where all things are lost as to our
knowledge.  T. Burnet, The Theory of the Earth, 1697
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html