Abstract
The mission of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is to advance radiological protection for the public benefit, covering all exposures of people and the environment to ionising radiation. The ICRP Code of Ethics stresses the importance of fulfilling this mission independently, impartially, transparently, and with accountability.
Biennial symposia are now a regular part of the ICRP calendar. The subject of this proceedings issue is the third such symposium, ICRP 2015, held in Seoul, Korea on 20–22 October 2015. Similar symposia were held in 2011 in Bethesda, MD, USA, and in 2013 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It has been announced that ICRP 2017 will be held in Paris, France on 10–12 October 2017, and preliminary plans are already underway for ICRP 2019 and ICRP 2021.
Although ICRP must maintain independence to undertake its mission effectively, it is also essential to remain closely connected to the radiological protection community, and the much broader community served by our recommendations. It is not enough that our members are part of this community; this should also be the case for ICRP as an organisation. The symposia are a way to stay connected – to share our recent, ongoing, and future work; and to hear directly from the community about what is useful, what is not, and what may be needed in the future. In part, it is about being transparent. Moreover, it is about working together to make radiological protection the best it can be for everyone’s benefit.
As at the previous two symposia, ICRP 2015 began with an introductory session. ‘Advancing together after 87 years’ was dedicated to presenting ICRP and outlining our programme of work. Five topical sessions followed to round out the 3 days.
‘Exploring existing exposure situations’ presented the wide variety of circumstances that fall within this exposure situation, including exposures to cosmic radiation, living in a contaminated area while dealing with post-accident recovery, and the problem of sites contaminated by past practices. One highlight of the session was the presentation given by Ryoko Ando on ‘Measuring, discussing, and living together: what we learned from 4 years in Suetsugi’, during which she described the lines drawn by radiological protection criteria that have defined the lives of those in her community since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March 2011.
The fact that an entire session was dedicated to radiological protection in medicine is hardly surprising as this is such a large and important part of the work of ICRP. ‘Radiological protection in medicine today’ began with a review of eight decades of experience, continued with a discussion of current issues in Korea and worldwide, and examined the state of the art with a review of recently released ICRP recommendations on radiological protection in ion beam radiotherapy, and web-based resources that provide information on radiation risks and benefits to healthcare providers.
‘The science behind radiation doses’ gave those present a peek into the work of ICRP Committee 2 and the related work of Committee 5, particularly in terms of looking at the major task of developing dose coefficients. In addition, information was provided on a new approach being considered for operational quantities by our sister organisation, the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements, and on ICRP’s effort to provide additional guidance on the use of effective dose.
Some of the very latest scientific findings, and the potential implications for the system of radiological protection, were presented in ‘New developments in understanding radiation effects’, looking at stem cell biology, dose-rate effects, variations in human radiosensitivity, and risks of non-cancer effects. This included a first look at ICRP’s effort to review current knowledge on the risk of exposure at low doses and low dose rates, and a glimpse at some of the findings in an as-yet-unpublished study of non-cancer effects in the Life Span Study (LSS) cohort. We look forward to reading the published work from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation to see what results might be extracted from the invaluable but complex LSS data.
The final session of the symposium was on ‘Ethics in radiological protection’, the subject of an ICRP Task Group, and a topic that has engaged many in the radiological protection profession since ICRP began to review it in earnest in 2012. This ICRP effort, and this symposium session, focussed on the ethical values inherent in the system of radiological protection.
The papers in this proceedings issue are the work of the individual authors. They are not recommendations of ICRP and do not necessarily represent the views of ICRP. However, they offer a good representation of the programme of ICRP 2015. Remarkably, these proceedings include a paper on every single presentation made during the symposium.
Each symposium builds on the last in important ways. ICRP 2015 was the first where presentation materials were released almost immediately after they were presented. It was the first for which videos of the presentations were made available, released within weeks. It was the first time that the proceedings papers were made available through the ICRP website in advance of publishing the proceedings. To make life easy for the online set, we have gathered all of these together in one place, along with abstracts, lists of attendees and supporters, and summaries of the ICRP Main Commission and Committee meetings held in conjunction with the symposium. To see for yourself, navigate to www.icrp.org and select ‘ICRP symposia’ from the main menu.
This time, we even managed to improve the past by applying some of the successes of ICRP 2015 to the previous symposium. All ICRP 2013 proceedings papers are now available individually through the ICRP website, and video presentations should be available by the time these proceedings are published.
Each symposium is a major undertaking for ICRP and, as with any large project, there are many to thank. A debt of gratitude is owed to all session co-chairs, presenters, and authors for making ICRP 2015 a great success. Thank you as well to those who worked behind the scenes, particularly: ICRP Executive Assistant Lynn Lemaire; ICRP Assistant Scientific Secretary Nobuyuki Hamada; ICRP Interns Audrie Ismail, Chantal Yacoub, Yuto Moriwake, Nguyen Tat Thanh, and Tiffany Lo; and of course all the members of our host organisation, the Korean Association for Radiation Protection, who worked tirelessly to make everything run smoothly.
Special thanks also goes to the members of the ICRP 2015 Symposium Editorial Board, which I had the pleasure to Chair: Kunwoo Cho, Nobuyuki Hamada, Sisko Saloma, and Michiya Sasaki. You can see their work supporting that of the authors on every page of these proceedings.
ICRP 2015 would not have been possible without the many organisations providing support specifically for this event, and all the organisations who have provided support to ICRP over the years: Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, UAE; Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency; Abu Dhabi Health Authority, UAE;
Most importantly, thank you to everyone who attended ICRP 2015. Your positive feedback inspires us to maintain our high standards and to keep improving. Ninety-one percent of respondents to the post-symposium survey were very satisfied or extremely satisfied overall, and 94% recommended attendance at ICRP 2017, the Fourth International Symposium on the System of Radiological Protection, to be held in Paris, France on 10–12 October 2017. I look forward to seeing you there!