The U.K. Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) has just published its 12^th report: "The impact of personally initiated X-ray computed tomography scanning for the health assessment of asymptomatic individuals". The report is available through the COMARE Web Site.

Scanning of the asymptomatic individual by using a computed tomography (CT) X-ray machine is a practice that has implications for public health, despite the fact that CT scanning of the asymptomatic individual may provide benefits to that person. The committee has reviewed the literature regarding both the benefit and detriment associated with CT scanning in the health assessment of asymptomatic individuals. We have considered the detriment caused by radiation from the CT scan but also the subsequent psychological effects and potential physical detriment from further investigations. Furthermore, we have considered the economic implications for the NHS which may become liable for further tests and examinations. While reviewing this type of practice, alternative techniques using lower doses of ionizing radiation or non-ionizing radiation have been considered.

COMARE recommends that regulation of these commercial CT services should be reviewed. We also recommend that clients should be provided with comprehensive information regarding dose and risk of the CT scan, as well as rates of false negative and false positive findings. Commercial CT services should have well developed and confidential mechanisms for integrating examination results into an established care pathway. Scans and data relating to any individual should be in formats consistent with national NHS IT programs. We have also recommended that any individual displaying symptoms and requesting a CT scan from a commercial service should not be scanned and should be referred back to their GP. There is a regulatory requirement that all medical exposures using ionizing radiation should be optimized, and from our review it is not possible to optimize exposure parameters for CT scans of the whole of the body, and we have strongly recommended that services offering whole body CT scanning of asymptomatic individuals should discontinue to do so. In addition, CT should not be used in assessment of spinal conditions, body fat and osteoporosis in asymptomatic individuals.

Scanning of three specific anatomical regions have been considered in detail in this report. We have concluded that there is no evidence that CT scanning for lung conditions is of benefit. However, cardiac CT scanning has been shown to have value for predicting cardiovascular risk and similarly CT colonography has the potential to detect small lesions. Both cardiac CT scanning and CT colonography should only be carried out in certain asymptomatic individuals.

In recognition that the end of the year can be a very busy time for all of us, the IRPA International Congress Program Committee (ICPC) has extended the deadline for submission of abstracts for the 12th International Congress to 20 January, 2008. The Congress will be held in Buenos Aires, 19 to 24 October, 2008.  More information about the Congress can be found on the IRPA 12 Web Site, www.irpa12.ar.org.

The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) held its annual meeting 10-14 October 2007 in Florence, Italy. Dr. Paul DeLuca, ICRU Chairman, welcomed the ICRU's newest member to the meeting, Dr. Hideo Tatsuzaki from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan.

Of the three draft reports that were reviewed, two of the reports, Assessment of Image Quality in Mammography and Approaches to Specification of Low-Dose Exposure to Ionizing Radiation, were pre-reviewed at this meeting to provide guidance to the report committee to facilitate the completion of the reports. The draft report, Prescribing, Recording, and Reporting Conformal Photon Beam Therapy and IMRT was reviewed for final approval for publication. Three seminars were given to summarize the work of the report committees, and two additional seminars were given to support current and possible future work:

• Molecular Imaging, presented by Soren Bentzen
• Weighted Absorbed Dose, presented by Andre Wambersie

Several other established committees are working on reports:

• ROC Analysis in Medical Imaging
• Fundamental Quantities and Units for Ionizing Radiation (special issue in 2008)
• Dosimetry Systems for Use in Radiation Processing Dosimetry
• Quantitative Aspects of Bone Densitometry
• Dose and Volume Specification for Intra-Cavitary Therapy in Gynecology
• Doses from Cosmic-Ray Exposures of Aircrew
• Image Quality and Patient Dose in Computed Tomography
• Prescribing, Recording and Reporting Ion-Beam Radiotherapy (in collaboration with the IAEA)
• Key Data for Measurement Standards in the Dosimetry of Ionizing Radiation
• Harmonization of Reporting Patient Dose in Diagnostic Procedures (in collaboration with UNSCEAR)
• Absorbed Dose in Diagnostic Procedures
• Dose Distributions in Normal Tissues Distant from the PTV in Radiation Therapy (in collaboration with the ICRP)

More information is posted on the ICRU web site: www.icru.org. Copies of the PowerPoint presentations from the meeting can be requested from the ICRU Secretariat: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In 1957, the International Labour Organization (ILO) established the first International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-58). This classification was later superseded by ISCO-68 and then by ISCO-88. ISCO is a tool for organizing jobs into a clearly defined set of groups according to the tasks and duties undertaken in the job. It is intended both for statistical purposes and for client oriented applications, such as management of migration of workers between countries as well as development of vocational training programmes and guidance. Radiation protection (health physics) is not currently an ISCO defined and registered occupation.

The IRPA Executive Council has now taken the initiative to propose the registration of the Radiation Protection Expert (RPE) in the upcoming version ISCO-08, to be published early in 2008. The draft definition can be downloaded from the Publications: IRPA Reports and Documents page. ILO has included in the actual ISCO-08 draft a new Unit Group in which the RPE is given as an example of registered occupations:

Draft ISCO-08: Unit Group 2263

Environmental and occupational health and hygiene professionals

Environmental and occupational health and hygiene professionals evaluate work and other environments and develop and implement programs to monitor environmental health and occupational health and safety, to ensure safe and healthy working conditions, and prevent disease or injury caused by chemical, physical, radiological and biological agents or ergonomic factors.

Examples of the occupations classified here:

• Environmental Health Officer
• Occupational Health and Safety Adviser
• Occupational Hygienist
• Radiation Protection Expert (RPE)