Table of contents

Report on one day meeting of the SRP was held at the National Physical Laboratory on 26 January 1982.

A knowledge of the normal cell kinetic turnover rates in a tissue tells us when injury will occur after irradiation, and what will be the effect of protracted compared with acute exposures. Examples are given of intestinal, marrow, skin and other types of radiation injury in mouse and man, including lethal injury after whole-body or partial-body irradiation.

This article gives a brief description of a study which is diagnosed as a long-term follow-up of workers occupationally exposed to ionising radiation. The prime objective is to look for any differences in the causes and ages of death of workers which may be related to the radiation doses they have received during their working life. Some of the difficulties are outlined together with the steps that are necessary to minimise their effect on the study. In particular, attention is drawn to the need for the inclusion of as many radiation workers as possible. It is hoped that within the next few years sufficient data will have been compiled to test the claims being made by some that ICRP values for the risk of induced somatic effects at low levels of exposure to ionising radiation underestimate the effects by as much as an order of magnitude.

It is necessary to ensure that the performance of any dosimetry service is maintained throughout its life. The technical and operational safeguards deployed to ensure that the NRPB Automated Thermoluminescent Dosimetry System maintains its performance, and always meets the requirements of the CEC, are detailed here.

Current methods of classifying working areas in in which unsealed radioactive materials are handled, are based primarily on surface contamination levels. The validity of the concept and its feasilility are examined and a new method proposed, which is based on the quantity of a radionucleid handled. The classifications are compatible with those used elsewhere in the field and the system has been in use, very successfully, since 1979.