radon / thoron were available? Doses from inhalation of radon / thoron depend on the concentration of these gases indoors, which in turn depends on factors such as how people ventilate their homes and the use of technology to remove radon gas from buildings. While diagnostic medical exposures using ionising radiation tend to be used more frequently than, say, 10 or 20 years ago, improved technology and techniques may have reduced the dose per procedure. When more than one factor is involved, it is hard to predict what will happen to collective doses, so we will have to be patient and wait for comprehensive reviews of radon / thoron concentrations in housing stock and the number of medical procedures and the associated doses.
Letters to the Editor
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Dear Editor,
Having been closely involved with the preparation of The Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985( IRR85), I can expand on the reason they were made( the article on the Evolution of the Ionising Radiations Regulations on p30 of the Autumn 2024 edition of Radiation Protection Today refers).
When the UK joined the European Community( now the European Union) in 1973 it, like other Member States, became subject to the provisions of the Euratom Treaty and related Community legislation. This included a duty to transpose the provisions of the 1976 Basic Safety Standards( BSS) Directive( 76 / 579 / Euratom), which reflected the recommendations of ICRP Publication 9, into national legislation. Although the UK was the Member State, Great Britain and Northern Ireland made separate, albeit virtually identical, implementing legislation. Before implementation could be achieved however, ICRP revised its recommendations( published as ICRP 26 in 1977) and the European Council consequently negotiated and then adopted a revised BSS Directive( 80 / 836 / Euratom), subsequently amending it in 1984( 84 / 467 / Euratom).
These developments at European level resulted in the Health and Safety Commission publishing two formal Consultative Documents containing draft regulations and supporting advice to implement the bulk of the Directive’ s provisions, the first in 1979 and then, to take account of the revised Directive, an amended version in 1982. The IRR85 were made on 23 August 1985 and, for the first time in GB, all work activities involving exposure to ionising radiations, including natural radiation sources( principally radon), were covered by the same comprehensive legislation. The Regulations were supported by a two-part Approved Code of Practice and, subsequently, by a third part relating to exposure to radon.
Steve Chandler( Environment Agency) and I submitted a joint paper ' The Development of Occupational, Public and Environmental Radiation Protection Legislation in Great Britain ' to IRPA10( held in Hiroshima in 2000). Re-reading this refreshed my memory and may be of interest to readers who would like to know more of the wider picture.
Wendy Bines OBE FSRP SRP Past President
See www. irpa. net / irpa10 / cdrom / 00724. pdf for a copy of the paper by Bines and Chandler( 2000).
12 Radiation Protection Today www. srp-rpt. uk