Radiation human health protection

The transfrontier impact of nuclear installations has been too readily dismissed in the past and it is now necessary to reinforce environmental monitoring and to provide the possibility of independent verification. Chernobyl has revealed the Community s inability to respond in a coordinated way to a major accident... " The action taken over foodstuff intervention levels was taken as much in an attempt to prevent economic chaos from the disruption of markets as it was to establish human health protection. Concerted action over intervention levels has fallen foul of uncertainty about dose-response patterns at low levels of radiation exposure and the different philosophies adopted in member countries about how to handle environmental pollution, in particular whether to take immediate action on a reasonable basis of presumption about effects or to delay action until certainty has been scientifically established. 

However, given the current state of knowledge and methods of dose-response assessment for substances that cause stochastic responses, there appear to be important technical and institutional impediments to the use of either incidence or fatalities exclusively. Data on radiation-induced cancer incidence and chemical-induced cancer fatalities for use at the low doses and dose rates relevant to health protection are not readily available, and current regulatory guidance calls for calculation of cancer incidence for hazardous chemicals. Since use of a common measure of response for all substances that cause stochastic responses may not be practical in the near term, both measures (fatalities for radionuclides and incidence for hazardous chemicals) could be used in the interest of expediency. The primary advantage of this approach is that the measures of stochastic response for radionuclides and hazardous chemicals would be based on the best available information from studies in humans and animals, and it would involve the fewest subjective modifying factors. This approach also would be the easiest to implement. 

Ozone is O3. The ozone layer is a region of the stratosphere that contains higher concentrations of ozone than other parts of the atmosphere. The ozone layer is important for human health because it blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and this helps to protect us from skin cancer. Research in the 1970s revealed that several gases used for refrigeration and other purposes were depleting the ozone layer. Many of these ozone-destroying molecules are short alkyl halides known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. 

UV fluence. However, this is incorrect and misleading because the SI unit of the absorbed dose of radiation is gray/J kg (Gy) (MiUs et al., 1993). The unit Gy is related to a specific mass and it was defined for reasons of safeguarding human health in radiology. It is used in radiation protection. 

Radiation exposure is one of the most well-studied hazards to human health, but it has not been possible to link any increased incidence of impaired health at the levels of exposure that are allowed for laboratory personnel. However, higher radiation exposure is harmful, which has several important implications. First, key prerequisites are that personnel involved in the handling of radioactive material are properly educated in how to avoid unnecessary exposure to people and the environment, that appropriate protective and dosimetry devices are used and that a plan is implemented for the handling and disposal of material. Second, it is usually not possible to use normal laboratory or pilot plant-scale equipment, since such batch sizes will require the handling of excessive amounts of radioactivity. Therefore, micro-scale equipment may be developed for certain processes. 

Although ozone concentrations in the upper atmosphere play an important role in protecting Earth s surface from harmful UV radiation, ozone at its surface is a pollutant harmful to human health. Enhanced levels of surface ozone are often the result of automobile exhaust and pose a serious health risk. Eortunately, current levels of surface ozone (also known as smog) over most major cities have declined to healthier levels due in part to domestic and international governmental regulations, see also Atmospheric Chemistry. 

Membrane-based separation processes over the years have emerged as one of the potential players for process intensification in many areas of the nnclear fnel cycle, in both front and back ends. Treatment of radioactive liquid wastes is receiving considerable attention worldwide due to the recognition of its importance for the protection of human health and the environment from the adverse effect of radiation associated with these wastes [4]. 

Two of the RADWASS principles refer to Protection of Human Health and to Safety of Facilities. Both recognise that management of radioactive waste must have regard to all relevant hazards. As well as those associated with ionising radiation, hazards may arise from the presence of toxic, corrosive, inflammable or biologically active materials. They may also be associated with operation of process plant and the excavation or mining of disposal frcilities. 

Nothing is more important to the sustenance of life on Earth than the sustainability of the atmosphere. At the beginning of Chapter 7, it was noted that humans have a most intimate relationship with the atmosphere through the air that they breathe. If the atmosphere contains toxic pollutants, human health will be harmed. Toxic substances in the atmosphere may also harm plants and stunt the growth of food crops and forest trees. The atmosphere also plays a vital protective role for the Earth System, defined and discussed in Chapter 1, Section 1.6, especially in regulating Earth s temperature and in filtering out harmful electromagnetic radiation. 

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