Management Of Exposure To Ionizing Radiation

Does radiation medicine need more regulation or simply better-coordinated regulation? This book addresses this and other questions of critical importance to public health and safety. The issues involved are high on the nation's agenda: the impact of radiation on public safety, the balance between federal and state authority, and the cost-benefit ratio of regulation. Although incidents of misadministration are rare, a case in Pennsylvania resulting in the death of a patient and the inadvertent exposure of others to a high dose of radiation drew attention to issues concerning the regulation of ionizing radiation in medicine and the need to examine current regulatory practices. Written at the request from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Radiation in Medicine reviews the regulation of ionizing radiation in medicine, focusing on the NRC's Medical Use Program, which governs the use of reactor-generated byproduct materials. The committee recommends immediate action on enforcement and provides longer term proposals for reform of the regulatory system. The volume covers Sources of radiation and their use in medicine. Levels of risk to patients, workers, and the public. Current roles of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, other federal agencies, and states. Criticisms from the regulated community. The committee explores alternative regulatory structures for radiation medicine and explains the rationale for the option it recommends in this volume. Based on extensive research, input from the regulated community, and the collaborative efforts of experts from a range of disciplines, Radiation in Medicine will be an important resource for federal and state policymakers and regulators, health professionals involved in radiation treatment, developers and producers of radiation equipment, insurance providers, and concerned laypersons.

NCRP Report No. 116 is the latest in the long series of reports on basic radiation protection criteria that began in 1934. It supersedes the predecessor in the series, NCRP Report No. 91, which was published in 1987. The current Report takes advantage of new information, evaluations and thinking that have developed since 1987, particularly the risk estimate formulations set out in NCRP Report No. 115. While the recommendations set out in this Report do not constitute a radical revision of the basic criteria, they do represent a refinement of the system enunciated in Report No. 91. Important changes include the utilization of revised tissue/organ weighting factors and the introduction of radiation weighting factors. Also noteworthy is the introduction of an allowable reference level of intake. Noteworthy too is the recommendation of an age-based lifetime limit for control of occupational exposures and a major simplification of limits aimed at controlling the exposure of the embryo and fetus. This Report, after outlining the goals and philosophy of radiation protection and the basis for exposure limits, goes on to review, in some detail, absorbed dose, equivalent dose, radiation weighting factors, and effective dose. Committed equivalent dose and committed effective dose are also introduced. Risk estimates for radiation exposure are presented and then the dose limits are enunciated. The Report also covers exposure in excess of the limits, limits for unusual occupational situations, guidance for emergency occupational exposure, and remedial action levels for naturally occurring radiation.

This book is the seventh in a series of titles from the National Research Council that addresses the effects of exposure to low dose LET (Linear Energy Transfer) ionizing radiation and human health. Updating information previously presented in the 1990 publication, Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR V, this book draws upon new data in both epidemiologic and experimental research. Ionizing radiation arises from both natural and man-made sources and at very high doses can produce damaging effects in human tissue that can be evident within days after exposure. However, it is the low-dose exposures that are the focus of this book. So-called “late” effects, such as cancer, are produced many years after the initial exposure. This book is among the first of its kind to include detailed risk estimates for cancer incidence in addition to cancer mortality. BEIR VII offers a full review of the available biological, biophysical, and epidemiological literature since the last BEIR report on the subject and develops the most up-to-date and comprehensive risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-level ionizing radiation.

This book reevaluates the health risks of ionizing radiation in light of data that have become available since the 1980 report on this subject was published. The data include new, much more reliable dose estimates for the A-bomb survivors, the results of an additional 14 years of follow-up of the survivors for cancer mortality, recent results of follow-up studies of persons irradiated for medical purposes, and results of relevant experiments with laboratory animals and cultured cells. It analyzes the data in terms of risk estimates for specific organs in relation to dose and time after exposure, and compares radiation effects between Japanese and Western populations.