The updated document (ICRP-146, 2020) for mitigating radiological consequences of nuclear accident

There is an updated latest ICRP document entitled Radiological Protection of people and the environment in the event of a large nuclear accident published by the ICRP as the Publication No. 146 (2020). The document is the updated versions of ICRP – 109 and ICRP- 111, which cover emergency exposure situations. The new document draws experience of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents.

The early and intermediate phases of accidents are considered as Emergency exposure situations and the long-term phase is considered as existing exposure situations (ICRP-103). Mitigating the radiological consequences on the humans and the environment are achieved by the justification and optimization principles as discussed in the ICRP. A set of reference levels are recommended for protection of general population, and for the protection of all concerned in the mitigation process. The concerned authorities at national and local level, are responsible for implementing radiation monitoring and surveillance programs. The authorities also are responsible to involve all the stakeholders in the emergency preparedness process and management of the successive phases of the accident.  

Posts related with the PREFACE of the reference book Radiological Protection and safety (Sep. 2019)

Radiation is ubiquitous. All humans are exposed to natural background radiation consisting of cosmic radiation, cosmogenic radionuclides and radiation from the radioactive materials present in the earth. In addition to this, humans are also exposed to artificial or man-made radiation sources. In all, globally on an average, the annual radiation dose due to these sources works out to be around 2.4 mSv. The levels of natural radionuclides are enhanced significantly in situations where the materials are processed in industrial scale to obtain useful materials such as uranium, thorium, rare-earth elements, etc.

Radiological protection in nuclear medicine

 

In In nuclear medicine, “radiopharmaceutical” are used as source of ionizing radiation for medical diagnosis and therapy. Radiopharmaceuticals are biologically active molecules labeled by short-lived radionuclides. The actual mass of radioactive material in any radiopharmaceutical is too trivial to cause any toxic effect. The radiopharmaceuticals are administered into the human body. The image of the radionuclide distribution within the body/organ of interest as a function of time is studied. Radiopharmaceuticals are increasingly used for the treatment of various cancers with novel radionuclides, compounds, tracer molecules, and administration techniques.

Before such procedures involving radionuclides are performed, the physician is able to quantify the radiation dose delivered by the radionuclide to the tumour and the normal tissues. It is essential that the doses are optimized for the patient protection. Considerations need to be given to minimize the staff exposures through proper equipment design, adequate shielding and handling of sources, use of personal protective equipment, etc. Medical physicists/RSO provide specific radiological protection guidance to patients and carers.

 A recent ICRP publication (ICRP-140, 2019) provides all aspects of radiological protection in therapy with radiopharmaceuticals

 

Book Review (http://notionpress.com/read/radiological-protection-and-safety)

 

The review of the reference book Radiological Protection and Safety – A Practitioner’s Guide is published in the quarterly journal Radiation Protection and Environment (RPE), Vol. 42(3)/2019/119-121. The journal is being published by the Indian Association for Radiation Protection (IARP). Readers are requested to go through the review for more information about the book using the link: 

https://www.rpe.org.in/text.asp?2019/42/3/119/270444

 Dr. D.D. Rao, the Editor of the journal concludes: “In my view, author has put in all his professional experience spanning over four decades in preparing this reference book, particularly in chapters 6-10, and chapters 14-16. I sincerely hope that professionals, students, teachers and researchers, or whosoever refer this book, will get immensely benefited from the contents of this reference book”.

 

Protection against Radon

Radon-222 being gaseous inert radionuclides, inhalation of the radon gas is not as hazardous as its short-lived, alpha emitting daughter products, with different half-lives. While inhaled radon gas is exhaled out, inhaled particulate radon daughters get deposited in the respiratory tract and continue to give dose to the lung tissues until they fully decay. In the meantime, some amount of the deposited daughter products, being highly soluble in body fluids (like blood) and get transported to different organs/tissues and finally get excreted through urine. Hence, the inhalation dose (internal dose) received by the lung and other organs is much higher in case of inhalation of radon daughters than the radon gas alone.

In uranium mines, inhalation of radon daughter is a major health hazard. There is a relation between the exposure to radon daughters and the lung cancer incidents amongst the mine workers. Protection standards are developed based on the exposure data.

The main strategy to protect the workers is to use proper respiratory protection to filter out the daughter products; provide adequate once-through ventilation in the work areas to dilute and disperse the radon and radon daughter activity, and monitor the activity levels in the air continuously.

The protection standards for radon, thoron and their daughter products are discussed in more detail in an Editorial by Dr. Pushparaja: Radon in dwellings and workplaces: An update on current regulations, Radiation Protection and Environment Journal, Vol. 42 (1&2), 2019, p. 1-4.

www.radsafetyinfo.com is updated!

Use of radiation and radiation sources in public domain is exponentially on the rise from medical and industrial applications. Security of the radiation sources is important since any lost, stolen and misplaced radiation source, or source in the hands of miscreants can create an emergency-like situation. It is the responsibility of one and all of us to be aware of the consequences, and means to protect ourselves, our near and dear ones, and protect others.  

However, there is not adequate awareness about the radiation utilization, and radiation protection and safety amongst the public in general, and people who take the benefits from the applications. Radiation protection is not taught in colleges. In order to create a general awareness amongst the people, a website is created and recently updated. The free website is: www.radsafetyinfo.com

 

Request everyone to go through the site, and give comments if any. They may also spread this information to create the awareness about radiation and its benefits. 

Ignorant members of public - About ionizing radiation

Let us frankly expose the TRUTH – Common man (person) including illiterate, semi-illiterate, and so-called literate or educated, hardly know anything about ionizing radiation. They only know that radiation is very harmful, so many thousands have died in the explosions of atom bombs in Japan; exposed person will lose hair and become impotent, etc etc. How we are going to explain all the benefits we talking about to such a large percentage, may be more than 90% of the population who are lacking an understanding of elementary radiation physics, mathematics, biology and medicine?

Communication is the key. All the practitioners of applications of radiation and radiological protection should focus on ways and means to create awareness amongst the people about radiation, benefits of low level exposures, medical uses in health-care and food preservation, some health effects at high levels of exposures, and how safely the radioactive waste is managed by concerned experts. We should use mass media communication systems and school/college syllabus to maximum possible extent. Desist from use of words, like probability, ALARA and risk analysis when communicating with members of the public.