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The article discusses a 2008 survey on the public perception of radiation and radiation from nuclear power plants, which also revealed effective communication with stakeholders on the matter. According to the study, perceptions and beliefs on the subject have improved since a 1991 survey and that these can be changed by messages . It is stated that familiarity, time and increased awareness of nuclear power benefits may partly account for the improvements and that the perception of radiation control and safety in messages is also important.

The article looks at the health concerns of disaster medical assistance teams (DMAT) over damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant (NPP) due to the Niiagata Chuetsu-Oki earthquake in Japan on July 16, 2007. The responsibility of organizing a national medical response to disaster falls on the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). The members of DMAT were told about their radiation exposure after deployment to the site. Also cited are factors that contribute to the anxiety of DMAT members about radiation exposure.

The article discusses the Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR) Technical Information Statement (TIS) that aims to identify quality sources of scientific data on possible health risks from radiofrequency (RF) energy exposure. It notes that COMAR's primary interest is the biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation such as RF energy emitted by mobile phones. The conclusions from some major reports and comments on the conclusions in the BioInitiative Report (BIR) are summarized.

This article focuses on radiation safety in industrial settings. In particular, the article addresses radiation protection issues pertaining to the operations of Canadian museums. An overview of radioactive items in Canadian museums, their categorization, and their impact is provided. The article presents specific examples of radiation from three museums: the Quebec Air and Space Museum, the National Air Force Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Nature. The article concludes that museums found to contain radioactive materials more than likely have detectable levels of radiation and progeny contamination.

The article discusses the role of two newspapers in Italy's decision to halt its use of nuclear energy. In 1964 Italy ranked 4th among nations in terms of electricity generated by nuclear energy. Subsequent events, including the Chernobyl accident in 1986, began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy. Two leading papers, Corriere della Sera and la Repubblica, covered nuclear energy extensively in the aftermath of Chernobyl. The papers presented technological, sociological, and ideological viewpoints. Ultimately voters decided against continuing Italy's nuclear program.

This article presents a paper examining shelters to be used after a nuclear attack. How well they fill the role depends on a set of interdependent decisions made by the people and organizations who prepare and use them. The paper looks at three different decisions; the first being the construction of a shelter according to guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security, the second explores how soon a shelter should be sought and the third considers when it is safe to leave a shelter. In light of the variables, the authors say that these life-and-death decisions deserve formal analysis to provide sound advice.

The article discusses a public health survey issued to residents in Vermont who had the Vermont Department of Health test their residences for radon. The survey assessed the demographic characteristics, knowledge about radon, mitigation rates, types of mitigation, and barriers to mitigation of the people surveyed. It is remarked that exposure to radon is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. The survey identified factors that were associated with radon mitigation that could lead to better radon education and mitigation practice.

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate a joint state and local government-sponsored potassium iodide (KI) distribution program in New Jersey. This program is part of a radiological emergency response system for residents living within the Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) of nuclear power facilities. KI pills and an informational fact sheet were distributed locally at six different public clinics in the summer of 2002. In this study, a mailed survey was developed, pilot tested, and sent to the general public to assess knowledge about KI use. The survey consisted of two groups of people, those who attended a KI distribution clinic and those that did not attend a clinic. There was a statistically significant difference in knowledge among the two groups of survey respondents regarding KI prophylaxis, with a mean of 46% of survey questions answered correctly by those who attended a clinic vs. 15% by those who did not attend. Certain questions were problematic for the public to answer correctly and included potential low compliance with government instructions for taking KI, confusion regarding where the public can obtain KI pills during an emergency, and the lack of awareness on the proper use of KI for children, pregnant women, and persons over the age of 40 y. Additional outreach in these specific areas is warranted. This study also found that there was a highly variable geographic pattern of homes that have a supply of KI pills, with some areas having 60% of the households supplied with pills from the clinic while other areas had as low as 1% of the homes supplied with KI pills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion of policy development from the industry perspective. It states that the responsibility and burden for implementation of any option for the disposition of low-activity radioactive waste will primarily reside with the industries that generate the waste and those that provide the necessary waste management and disposal services. However, there is no general consensus among these industries on the multiple policy issues that are critical to the application of an effective management and disposal program.

The article presents an analysis of public interest group positions on radiation protection. It states that the history of radiation risk management is replete with contentious public debate between public interest groups and the technical community of radiation protection professionals. It mentions that to promote a deeper comprehension of this phenomenon, it describes the rationales and values underlying public-interest group positions in one radiation risk domain and contrasts them with those of the technical community.

The article presents the results of the study on the field comparison of commercially available short-term radon detectors to find out their accuracy under actual field conditions. Fifteen radon detectors from six companies were subjected to actual field conditions. Five of the six companies failed the accuracy guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Moreover, four of the six companies did not pass the precision guidelines of the EPA. Findings imply that the performances of radon detector sold commercially may not be as precise as those detectors available before the close of the National Radon Proficiency Program conducted by the EPA in 1998.

The article presents a discussion on the evaluation of radiation related health care complaints in Texas for the improvement of quality. The radiation sources are used for diagnostic as well as therapeutic applications. Diagnostic ones include a range of exams comprising of X rays, complicated tomography scans and radioactive material injections used for nuclear medicine imaging. Therapeutic purposes include distribution of huge doses of radiation to small area of body for the destruction of tumor cells for treating cancer. To deliver complaints, the Texas Department of Health Bureau of Radiation Control (TDH-BRC) should be contacted. The TDH-BRC is a part of the Texas Department of Health and looks after the licenses of radioactive materials and some registrations too. The investigation results of the complaints are compiled in text format and a sequential file code is allotted to them. Outline reports of complaints were acquired from TDH-BRC and information was converted into computerized database.

Standards for permissible exposure to radiation and the way they are established must incorporate a set of principles that uphold both health and democracy. When the science is uncertain, the burden of proof that risk is not being imposed should be on the source of the risk, not on the possibly affected public or workforce. Scientific processes must be transparent to the public, must address all relevant risk issues and endpoints (and not only cancer), and must be inclusive of the actual experience and opinion of the people who are exposed to radiation risks. Scientists are too often dismissive of public experience and interests, as for instance with worker illnesses or fallout, even though input from the public and workers has frequently proven to be valuable in the development of radiation protection principles. Incorporating the concerns, views, and experiences of workers and the public in a respectful way while maintaining a high standard of scientific work must be an essential part of the standard-setting process. Further, the clearly enunciated International Commission on Radiological Protection principle that the imposition of risk must be accompanied by a clear benefit needs to be a far more explicit part of standard-setting processes, which must also ensure that all known risks are disclosed and that suspected risks, such as possible synergisms between some radionuclides and hormone-disrupting chemicals, are carefully considered. Finally, given the long-lived nature of risks from many radionuclides and the large uncertainties about future physical, social, economic, and other conditions, the issue of how the interests of future generations can be included in standard setting is a difficult but vital matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The broad based mission statements of public institutions whose charters are to educate the public is analyzed so that common threads pertinent to homeland security action items can be correlated with the public education scope. The intent of the coordination is to ensure that the prevention component in addition to the preparedness issues of homeland security is incorporated into the educational system with short and long term goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing an effective radiation safety program requires good communication with workers. The process begins with radiation safety. Before workers take a position involving radiation exposures, they should understand the possible health risks and what to do to keep their risks ALARA. The goal is for workers to achieve a balanced perspective on radiation health risks in order to avoid either undue fear or undue complacency about radiation. Workers should have enough understanding of radiation risks to decide to accept—or not accept—the risk of radiation as a condition of employment. Furthermore, the decision to accept radiation risk for the benefits of employment should be based on informed consent. Workers with a good understanding of radiation health risks will strive to minimize not only their own radiation exposure but also those of their work group. Normally radiation safety training to achieve worker understanding is focused primarily on the technology of radiation. However, understanding is more than a matter of good technical information. What one chooses to understand is also impacted by perceptions of radiation risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrader-Frechette and Persson (1997) reviewed ethical thinking on (1) Equity vs. Efficiency, (2) Health vs. Economics, (3) Individual Rights vs. Societal Benefits, (4) Due Process vs. Necessary Sacrifice, and (5) Stakeholder Consent vs. Management Decisions. This discussion offers reasoned conclusions pertaining to these five topics. In addition, ethical aspects are discussed as to (6) Psychological Harm Through Fear of Radiation, (7) Economical-ecological Harm Through Fear of Radiation, and (8) Science: the Question of Truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1989, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed a program, for the U.S. Department of Energy, to involve local citizens in environmental surveillance at the Hanford Site. The Community-Operated Environmental Surveillance Program was patterned after similar community-involvement efforts at the Nevada Test Site and the Three Mile Island nuclear facility. Its purpose is to increase the flow of information to the public, thereby enhancing the public's awareness and understanding of surveillance activities. The program consists of two components: radiological air monitoring at nine offsite locations and agricultural product sampling at selected locations near the site. At each air-monitoring station, two local school teachers collect air particulate samples and operate equipment to monitor ambient radiation levels. Atmospheric tritium samples (as water vapor) are also collected at some locations. Four of the air-monitoring stations include large, colorful informational displays for public viewing. These displays provide details on station equipment, sample types, and sampling purposes. Instruments in the displays also monitor, record, and show real-time ambient radiation readings (measured with a pressurized ionization chamber) and meteorological conditions. Agricultural products, grown primarily by middle-school-aged students, are obtained from areas downwind of the site. Following analysis of these samples, environmental surveillance staff visit the schools to discuss the results with the students and their teachers. The data collected by these air and agricultural sampling efforts are summarized with other routinely collected sitewide surveillance data and reported annually in the Hanford Site environmental report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the addition of a new feature to the Health Physics Society (HPS) website. HPS is an organization of nearly 5,200 radiation safety professionals. One of its purposes is to furnish information about radiation founded by reliable scientific data. For this, apart from radiation protection journal and newsletter HPS came up with its website in 1996. It enriched the goal of HPS in providing communication to people involved in radiation safety operations. Then a new feature named "Ask the Experts" (ATE) was added in 1999. It served people from all over the world to ask questions related to radiological protection. The answers to the questions are submitted instantly as the topic editor interacts directly with the questioner. Initially, an average of three questions were submitted a day which made things more difficult for people browsing the website. Now the ATE has been redesigned so that finding information becomes simpler. Answer categories were edited to make improvements, frequently asked questions and information sheets were created.

The Department of Education, the Association of Schools of Public Health, and national professional societies dedicated to teaching and dissemination of information for health and education in the public sector can form a clearinghouse on information and manpower on Homeland Security by affiliation with Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP). The state licensed or regional societies can contribute further information and guidelines. In the HPS the Science Teacher Workshop (STW) and Public Education (PEC) Committees can assist a CPHP on radiation issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is widely known that strict regulations protect nuclear workers who raise safety-related concerns, few are aware that the filingof a claim for radiation-related injuries has been interpreted to constitute a 'protected activity' under the Energy Reorganization Act, which endows the claimant with 'whistleblower' status. This means that negative employment-related actions taken against a radiation injury claimant can result in detrimental, even draconian, consequences for the employer involved. The case of In re McCafferty illustrates this vividly. The claimants in McCafferty were six contract insulators who filed lawsuits for emotional distress they claimed to have suffered due to exposures they received at Centerior Energy's Davis-Besse nuclear plant. Because of the pending lawsuit and claim for emotional distress, Centerior denied all six claimants access to Centerior's plants, which resulted in their being terminated by their employer. The claimants brought an action with the Department of Labor, succeeded in convincing the Administrative Review Board that Centerior's actionsconstituted retaliation under the ERA 'whistleblower' provision, andwere afforded nearly full relief on their claims. This article explains how Centerior's actions ran afoul of the Energy Reorganization Act's 'whistleblower' provision. It also describes what licensees and their subcontractors can do if faced with similar circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades, radiation litigation has become a unique field of toxic tort litigation, with many new precedent setting decisions providing guidelines establishing how cases will be litigated in the future. This article will provide a summary of the status of the issues that are being litigated in radiation cases, and suggest recommendations on how pending issues should be resolved in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few, if any, radiation induced cancers should appear among nuclear workers in the United States. The existing safety standards and lifetime doses received under the operation of those safety standards are such that less than 1% of the cancers that appear in nuclear workers should be related to their occupational radiation exposure. This small numbers of valid claims is a tribute to the effectiveness of the federal safety standards and to the ALARA professional philosophy of achieving excellence in radiation protection which has marked the field of health physics since its inception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, radiation protection philosophy and practice have been the domain of professionals trained in the physical and medical sciences. Radiation protection policy was formulated and implemented largely without consultation with or participation by other professional disciplines or the general public. Although, from a public health standpoint, past radiation protection efforts have worked well, there aregrowing signs that the public has lost confidence in the radiation risk management system as currently configured. This paper draws on perspectives of political science, social psychology, economics, and decision analysis to analyze the limitations of the current radiation protection regime and to suggest alternatives for enhancing public trust and improving efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this note the authors survey existing international radiation-protection recommendations of the ICRP, the IAEA, and the ILO. After outlining previous work on the ethics of radiation protection and risk assessment/management, the authors review ethical thinking on five keyissues related to radiation protection and ethics. They formulate each of these five issues in terms of alternative ethical stances: (1) Equity vs. Efficiency, (2) Health vs. Economics, (3) Individual Rights vs. Societal Benefits, (4) Due Process vs. Necessary Sacrifice, and(5) Stakeholder Consent vs. Management Decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]