The European Commission has announced the International Symposium on Non-Medical Imaging Exposures to be held in Dublin, Ireland, October 8-9, 2009.  More information is available from their announcement on the Other Documents page of our web site.

Almost half of 2009 has passed and I think that some news about what the IRPA President and Executive Council (EC) have been doing is appropriate. My wife and I have been living in Paris now for almost 3 months and we are becoming adjusted to Parisian and European life. I believe that both IRPA and I benefit from my close proximity to the Executive Office in Fontenay-aux Roses and my ability to participate in various meetings related to radiation protection and IRPA's interests that occur in Europe.

The EC had its first meeting following IRPA 12 in Buenos Aires at the end of February in Bethesda, Maryland. As part of that meeting we had a full day of brainstorming and strategic planning for the next 4-8 years. The EC agreed that this focus on the future was very important and useful to develop directions and priorities for the future as IRPA approaches its 50th anniversary in 2014. The outcome of this planning session will be a Strategic Plan, the first draft of which will be discussed at the next EC meeting, 3-4 October in Paris. At the February EC meeting several tasks related to education, membership and support for Associate Societies, organization of regional congresses, and relationships with other international organizations were assigned to members of the EC.

Following the EC meeting, I met with José Cruz at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for a discussion about possible IRPA/PAHO collaborations that would assist development of radiation protection professionals and societies in the Central American and Caribbean regions. I will be developing some ideas with the EC over the next year. I have also been discussing closer cooperation between IRPA and the International Organization of medical Physics (IOMP) with their current and future Executive Officers, Peter Smith and Madan Rehani. I will be attending the World Congress on Medical Physics in Munich in September and meeting with the IOMP directors to continue these discussions. This is a very important relationship to develop because of the need to instill a better radiation protection culture in medicine as well as to help both organizations develop better organizations in the developing world. I also attended a meeting on improving medical physics, including education in radiation protection, organized by the IAEA, where I was able to advocate for improved education in radiation protection for medical phyicicsts, and I am serving on the program committee for a conference on radiation protection in radiation oncology that will be held in Paris in December.

So that this report does not become unnecessarily long, I will summarize the remaining activities. Benard LeGuen, a newly elected member of the EC has assumed responsibility for organizing the workshops to develop the guidance document on radiation protection culture that was launched at IRPA 12. The first major workshop for this effort will be held 14-15 December in Paris.

I received preliminary comments on the Draft revision, BSS 2.0 from the UK, German-Swiss and Italian societies. I combined them into a consolidated set of comments and submitted them to the IAEA by the 15 June deadline. These comments can be found on the IRPA Reports and Documents page of our web site. I encourage all Associate Societies to carefully review the Draft BSS 2.0 and submit their comments to me by 15 September so that I can send a detailed and consolidated set of IRPA comments to IAEA in time for them to be considered at the next meeting of the Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC) in November. Finally, the EC has approved the design for a new IRPA brochure and we are working to revise the IRPA display in time for the IAEA General Conference in September.

Hopefully, this report is informative and of interest to you. Please let me know what you think. I also encourage all Associate Societies to share information about their activities. Send your news to Publications Director Dick Griffith for posting.

June 25, 2009

1. Audio presentations from the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
2. The Sievert Lecture presented by Prof. Christian Streffer, Radiological Protection: Challenges and fascination of biological research.  The lecture is available in PDF and can be found on the Web Site Plenary page.
3. Papers from the Plenary sessions, including the Special Papers by Dr. Thomas Teneforde, NCRP President, Low dose and low-dose-rate radiation effects and models; and Prof. Roger Clarke, The ICRP 80th Anniversary: The evolution of its policies through 80 years.
4. Keynote Lectures in PDF format.
5. Special Technical Session papers , also as PDF files.
6. The Technical Session oral papers are presented as PDF files.
7. Refresher Course presentations as PowerPoint or full paper PDF files.
8. Seminars as PDF files.
9. The Full Papers are presented as PDF or WORD files.  In some cases the full papers are not available, but the abstracts are presented.