C. Wernli

Fourth European IRPA congress (IRPAeurope2014)

In 2009 the delegates of the European associate societies of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) nominated the German-Swiss Fachverband für Strahlenschutz (FS) to organise the fourth European regional IRPA Congress in 2014. The board of the FS decided to invite the Association romande de radioprotection (ARRAD), the French speaking FS colleagues in Switzerland, to join the organising team, and Geneva was chosen as host city of the Congress. Owing to the generous support by the Swiss federal government the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) was available for the Congress. In agreement with the IRPA Executive Council the date of the Congress was fixed for 23–27 June 2014. IRPA Congresses have a tradition to publish abstracts only. The organisers of the 2014 Congress proposed to publish a limited selection of papers in a peer reviewed journal. Fortunately, Oxford Press agreed to publish such a selection in a special issue of the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry (RPD). The international scientific programme committee critically reviewed the over 500 submitted abstracts resulting in a ranking of the abstracts. The authors of the 60 top-ranked abstracts were invited to submit by the end of the Congress a full paper, according to the special rules of Oxford Press. Not all contributions could be accepted because of earlier or ongoing publication elsewhere and some authors were not in the position to complete a full paper for peer review on time. Finally, 37 papers were submitted. The review process was then according to the system of Oxford Press for the journal RPD. The Guest Editors were the members of the core team of the organisers of the Congress. Originally, the plan was to limit the papers to four printed pages each. Due to the fact that not all invited papers could be included, this size limit was finally not applied. This issue contains two special papers: a general overview and summary of the various presentations with emphasis on the plenary sessions is given in ‘Radiation protection culture: A global challenge’ and under the title ‘Abstracts of the presentations for the Young Scientists and Professionals Award’ the abstracts of the 12 presentations in this contest are given. All the other papers are thematic contributions, but according to the topic of the Congress some papers summarise and review well-known issues, while the others present new scientific results. The Guest Editors Rolf Michel, Klaus Henrichs, François Bochud, Christophe Murith and Christian Wernli would like to thank all authors of the published papers and especially all the involved persons at RPD for the excellent and fruitful cooperation in the production of this special issue. Special thanks go to the colleagues in the various teams who made the IRPAeurope2014 Congress possible. Hopefully, the reader of this special issue can here find some interesting information on the key presentations at the Congress.

30-y follow-up of a Pu/Am inhalation case

In 1983, a young man inhaled accidentally a large amount of plutonium and americium. This case was carefully followed until 2013. Since no decorporation measures had been taken, the undisturbed metabolism of Pu and Am can be derived from the data. First objective was to determine the amount of inhaled radionuclides and to estimate committed effective dose. In vivo and excretion measurements started immediately after the inhalation, and for quality assurance, all types of measurements were performed by different labs in Europe and the USA. After dose assessment by various international groups were completed, the measurements were continued to produce scientific data for model validation. The data have been analysed here to estimate lung absorption parameter values for the inhaled plutonium and americium oxide using the proposed new ICRP Human Respiratory Tract Model. As supplement to the biokinetic modelling, biological data from three different cytogenetic markers have been added. The estimated committed effective dose is in the order of 1 Sv. The subject is 30 y after the inhalation, of good health, according to a recent medical check-up.

Radiation protection culture: a global challenge

The central motto Radiation Protection Culture-A Global Challenge of the fourth European IRPA Congress is discussed on the basis of the IRPA Guiding Principles Establishing a Radiation Protection Culture and the contributions presented in the plenary sessions of the conference.

A SHORT HISTORY AND CRITICAL REVIEW OF INDIVIDUAL MONITORING.

Soon after the discovery of X-rays and the radioactive element radium harmful radiation effects occurred, mainly in the medical field. Consequently, the radiologists, a new profession at that time, called for a limitation of radiation exposures. First proposals were to limit the exposure rate to prevent the incidence of skin erythema. It took more than two decades and there were many victims of severe radiation effects until a sound basis for radiation protection and individual monitoring was established. For external dosimetry, the film dosemeter was invented in the 1920s. This device, often combined with an ion chamber-based pencil dosemeter, dominated the systems used in personnel dosimetry until the end of the twentieth century. For internal exposure, the concept of limiting the body burden was commonly used, and only in the late 1970s, the new concept of the effective dose equivalent published in ICRP publication 26 allowed for a unified interpretation and, therefore, addition of the dosimetric quantities for external and internal exposures. By the end of the last century, individual monitoring had to survive an inflation of proposals for new quantities, but fortunately, it was also the time of vast developments of new technologies, methods and procedures. Later on, much room was given to highly sophisticated regulations, requirements, metrological concepts and administrative procedures. In this complex environment, the original task of individual monitoring became more and more hidden behind secondary loads. Now, like about hundred years ago, however with different motivation, once again the ultimate goal of the professional work has to be thought about by asking: Do people always know why they do what they do? Or simply: Why individual monitoring?

Individual monitoring at accelerator centres.

The accurate determination of personal dose equivalent requires the proper use of appropriate radiological quantities and units, knowledge of the dose equivalent response of the personal dosemeters used and detailed information on the fluence as well as dose equivalent spectra at the workplaces. This information can then be used to select the appropriate dosemeters, to set up the optimum calibration conditions and to introduce, in case of need, normalisation factors for application in specific radiation fields. High-energy neutrons contribute significantly to the radiation fields around high-energy particle accelerators. Examples for procedures and methods to determine personal dose equivalent at accelerator centres are given.