Living in the digital age where information spreads far and wide from billions of online sources, there is a greater need than ever to present a clear, single line of global recommendations in radiation safety. The Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety (IACRS), comprising 13 key international organizations and bodies in the radiation field, has been harmonizing safety standards for the past 30 years, most notably in the development of the IAEA International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (GSR Part 3).
Earlier this year, the IAEA took over the Chair and led the IACRS to adopt its two main priorities for the next 18 months.
The Committee has chosen to focus on launching a joint process to consider and document all potential implications of the new operational quantities for the current radiation protection system of the new International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements Report 95: Operational Quantities for External Radiation Exposure, issued in December 2020.
Miroslav Pinak, Head of the IAEA Radiation Safety and Monitoring Section and incoming Chair of the IACRS said, "Regulators and users may need to consider those new quantities in future revisions of their radiation safety documents."
Formulating regulatory standards in non-medical human imaging was the second priority selected by all Committee members, largely because intentional radiation exposure for purposes including security screening, detection of smuggled goods hidden in human bodies and health insurance in professional sport involves ethical aspects and can have radiological effects on the individual, particularly children.
“The group will develop a summary document highlighting the key issues associated with intentional exposure of individuals to radiation for purposes other than medical diagnosis, medical treatment or biomedical research, so called non-medical human imaging,” said Pinak.