Committees

Brief History of the Committees of the ICRP

Before World War 2, the International X-ray and Radium Protection Committee (IXRPC), predecessor of the ICRP, was not active except for 1 day during the International Congress of Radiology (ICR) (ICRP, 2009).

During that time, the committee had no formal rules or procedures governing its meeting and as a result often faced undue pressures from national governments regarding the nationalities of members of the committee (Lindell 1996a).

During World War 2, it was not possible for the committee to meet and it wasn’t until the 1950’s that another meeting took place.

This time however, Lauriston Taylor drafted new rules and a new name for the IXRPC. IXRPC became the ICRP. The new rules were quite similar to the present day ones and regarded the subject areas that the ICRP would focus on as well as the selection of its members (ICRP, 1951).

6 sub-committees of ICRP were established.

They included:

Permissible dose for external radiation;
Permissible dose for internal radiation;
Protection against X rays generated at potentials up to 2 million volts;
Protection against X rays above 2 million volts, and β rays and γ rays;
Protection against heavy particles, including neutrons and protons; and
Disposal of radioactive wastes and handling of radioisotopes

Unfortunately, by the time the Commission met again in Copenhagen in 1953, it was clear that the amount of activities expected to be completed by the Commission was vastly greater than its ability to do so. This was made evident when no members of sub-committee 5 were able to attend the Commission meeting.

As a result, the commission decided to merge subcommittees 4 and 5 together. The new sub-committees became known as the “Roman Numeral Committees” and covered topics including:

SC I: Permissible doses for external radiation;
SC II: Permissible doses for internal radiation;
SC III: Protection against X rays generated at potentials up to three million volts;
SC IV: Protection against X rays above three million volts, b rays, c rays, and heavy particles, including neutrons and protons; and
SC V: Handling and disposal of radioactive isotopes.

At a meeting in Stockholm in May 1962, the Commission again decided to reorganise the committee system in order to improve productivity, which had differed considerably between committees.

The five ‘Roman numeral’ committees were replaced with four committees with Arabic numerals, rather similar to the present Committees 1–4:

C1: Radiation effects;
C2: Internal exposure;
C3: External exposure; and
C4: Application of recommendations.

Since 1962, the mission statements and names of the ICRP committees have changed twice, once over the 1978-1981term and again in 1998.

In 2004, a fifth committee of the ICRP was created. The fifth committee is devoted to topics about environmental protection.

Current ICRP Committee Mission Statements

Committee 1: Radiation Effects
Committee 1 considers the risk of induction of cancer and heritable disease (stochastic effects) together with the underlying mechanisms of radiation action; also, the risks, severity, and mechanisms of induction of tissue/organ damage and developmental defects (deterministic effects)

Committee 2: Doses from Radiation Exposure
Committee 2 is concerned with development of dose coefficients for the assessment of internal and external radiation exposure, development of reference biokinetic and dosimetric models, and reference data for workers and members of the public.

Committee 3: Protection in Medicine
Committee 3 is concerned with protection of persons and unborn children when ionising radiation is used for medical diagnosis, therapy, or for biomedical research; also, assessment of the medical consequences of accidental exposures.

Committee 4 Application of the Commission’s Recommendations
Committee 4 is concerned with providing advice on the application of the recommended system of protection in all its facets for occupational and public exposure. It also acts as the major point of contact with other international organisations and professional societies concerned with protection against ionising radiation.

Committee 5: Protection of the Environment
Committee 5 is concerned with radiological protection of the environment. It aims to ensure that the development and application of approaches to environmental protection are compatible with those for radiological protection of man, and with those for protection of the environment from other potential hazards.

Committtee Membership

Committee Membership 2009-2013

Committee 1

W. F. Morgan (as of Apr 11, 2013)-Chairman

R. J. Preston (July 1, 2009 – Apr 11, 2013)- Chairman

A. Sigurdson-Vice Chairman

J. Hendry (July 1, 2009 – Apr 11, 2013)-Secretary

W. Rühm (as of Apr 11, 2013) -Secretary

A. Akleyev

T. Azizova

M. Blettner

R. Chakraborty

S. Darby

C. Muirhead

N. Nakamura

O. Niwa

S. Salomaa

F. A. Stewart

D. Stram

M. Tirmarche

R. Wakeford

P. –K. Zhou

Committee 1, 2009

Committee 2

H. -G. Menzel

W. E. Bolch (as of Apr 11, 2013)

J. Harrison (July 1, 2009 – Apr 11, 2013)

M. Bailey

M. Balonov

D. Bartlett

V. Berkovski

W. Bolch

R. Cox

G. Dietze

K. F. Eckerman

A. Endo

N. Ishigure

R. Leggett

J. L. Lipsztein

J. Ma

F. Paquet

N. Petoussi-Henss

A. S. Pradhan

Committee 2, 2009

Committee 3

E. Vañó- Chairman

J. –M. Cosset-Vice Chairman

M. Rehani-Secretary

K. Åhlström Riklund

M. Baeza

L. Dauer

I. A. Gusev

J. W. Hopewell

P. –L. Khong

P. Ortiz López

S. Mattsson

D. Miller

H. G. Ringertz

M. Rosenstein

Y. Yonekura

B. Yue

Committee 3, 2009

Committee 4

J. Lochard-Chairman

W. Weiss-Vice Chairman

J. –F. Lecomte- Secretary

P. Burns

P. Carboneras

D. A. Cool

T. Homma

M. Kai

H. Liu

S. Liu

S. Magnússon

P. C Martinez

G. Massera

A. McGarry

K. Mrabit

S. Shinkarev

J. Simmonds

A. S. Tsela

W. Zeller

Committee 4, 2009

Committee 5

R. J. Pentreath-Chairman

C.- M. Larsson-Vice Chairman

A. R. Gallego (As of June 8, 2011)-Secretary

K. Higley (July 1, 2009 - Dec 12, 2010)-Secretary

F. Bréchignac

D. Copplestone

A. – R. Gallego

K. Higley

G. Pröhl

A. Real

K. Sakai

P. Strand

A. Ulanovsky

Committee 5, 2009