Environmental Protection: Transfer parameters for Reference Animals and Plants

The ICRP has prepared a draft report on the above much needed topic. The report is put up in the ICRP website requesting comments from individuals and groups. The last date is October 1, 2010.

The approach followed by the Commission to environmental protection uses the concept of a limited set of Reference Animals and Plants as a basis for relating exposure to dose, and dose to radiation effects, for different types of animals and plants in an internally consistent manner.

A set of Dose Conversion Factors is derived for the Reference Animals and Plants, to enable dose rates to be calculated when the concentrations of radionuclides within these organisms have been established by direct measurement. The resultant dose rates can then be compared with evaluations of the effects of dose rates on the different Reference Animals and Plants. These data have been compiled in such a way that Derived Consideration Reference Levels can then be established, each of which constitutes a band of dose rates for each Reference Animal and Plant within which there is likely to be some chance of deleterious effects occurring in individuals of that type of animal or plant. Site specific data on Representative Organisms can then be compared with such values and used as a basis for decision making.

An enormous data base has been brought together and used to provide the most up to date data available.

Whole-body scanners at airports

Airports, world –over will be using full-body scanners to foil possible terror attempts in flights. The United States has tested 40 whole-body scanners as part of a pilot program. These machines - millimeter wavelength imaging and backscatter X-ray scanners, will be used to see under clothes and identify unusual objects. Skin is the likely target organ for the radiation from such body scanners.

It is possible that the radiations may not be penetrating-type and hence risk may be low However, large numbers of people around the world would be exposed to a small risk which may ultimately lead to major public health concern over log time. The exposure from such scanners will be considerable for the air crew and frequent fliers.

It is known that there is no threshold dose that could be considered as risk free to an individual's health, particularly for induction of cancer. As per the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, mass scanning of public using radiation is not justified by any means. If any exposure to radiation can be avoided, it should be avoided.

Members of the public already exposed to low-level radiation from various sources, such as medical X-rays, cosmic radiation during flights at high altitudes, EMF radiation from cellphones, micro-wave radiation from ovens, TV sets, etc, etc. It is time that research should be focused on developing systems which will not expose members of the public to radiations.

Countries should not just rush to install such machines without proper study with respect to its social concerns of intruding into the privacy of passengers; radiation exposure issues; regulatory aspects, ensuring proper maintenance, particularly calibration of the systems so that no member of the public will be exposed to higher levels of radiation at any time.