ICRP Main Commission Meeting

1972 March 8-10 Ottawa, Canada

The Commission conducted a secret ballot and voted upon three names that would be forwarded to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science for nomination of award in radiation protection.

No decision was reached regarding dissemination of Main Commission TG report. Final decision will be made when report is completed.

The Commission was presented updates regarding the work of Committees 1-4 and made the following decisions:

C1 – The Commission decided to take the final decision on approval of RBE of High LET Radiations by mail ballot. It was decided to publish the report in the ICRP blue cover series. Regarding Balance Between Genetic Effects in the First and Later Generations, the Commission decided to provide funds to purchase 500 reprints of the journal the report was published in.

C2 – The Commission approved adoption of the report Alkaline Earth metabolism in Adult Man. Final approval for the following documents were postponed for a mail ballot: Reference Man and Metabolism of Plutonium and Other Actinides. The Commission discussed the topic of how might working dose limits be described in Radon, Thoron, and Their Daughter Products. It was agreed to express any limits in terms of an annual dose.

C3 – Updates on work related to Revision of ICRP-15, neutron shielding, and aircraft exposures was provided to the Commission.

C4 – Work updates related to revision of ICRP-9,10, 10A, and 5 were provided along with work related to radiation protection in mines, emergency situations, and releases of radioactive materials.

The Commission adopted a statement entitled Radiation Exposures in Supersonic Aircraft in response to a request from the Council of Europe.

The Scientific Secretary had written to chairman of TG that prepared ICRP-12. The Commission agreed to the suggestions in the Chairman’s subsequent response.

Significant discussion was held regarding the Commission’s role in radiation protection, and increasingly passive role in providing recommendations to the medical industry. There was worry that the Commission was undertaking too many research projects and it was becoming too difficult to keep track of all work. No decision was made as a result of this discussion.

The next meeting was decided to take place in 1972 Brighton, UK.